TOGETHER FOR A NIGHT

It felt as though a weighty boulder rested upon my heart. The ache, dear heavens, the agony was akin to a slow-spreading cancer. Heartbreak, that's what it mirrored. Initially, there was the excruciating pain, followed by a numbing hollowness.

To be honest with myself, the numbness had set in long before just five days ago. Daniel and I hadn't been intimate for weeks, and well before that, my orgasms had ceased. My once joyful experiences had withered away like an aged prune, defying all attempts to rekindle them.

I found myself in a state of frigidity, an unexpected and unwelcome development. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. I was in my prime and should have been enjoying mind-blowing sex at least four times a week, but it had dwindled to a mere quarterly occurrence. Moreover, I had to initiate every single time.

Taking a seat on a stool at the kitchen bar, I stared at a cup of steaming tea in front of me. It was well past dinner time, but my appetite had deserted me. I clutched the cup, hoping to still my trembling hands. Never before had I felt such a profound sense of betrayal and embarrassment in my life.

"I still can't believe you cheated on me," I said, more to myself than anyone else.

Daniel and I weren't exactly on speaking terms ever since I found out that he'd been cheating on me about five days ago. That's when my world had come crashing down, the pain almost unbearable.

Despite the urge telling me not to look, I glanced over at Daniel sitting on the couch - his favorite spot in the small apartment we rented together - and I wanted to bash him across the head with something hard.

Just as the thought crossed my mind, he turned his head to look at me, his brown eyes filled with pity for me. There was a time when I used to look into his eyes only to see love and affection staring back at me.

But those days were over now. Gone. Adios. Now he pitied me.

"I don't know what else to say to you, Lauren. Anna was there for me when you weren't." He shrugged his shoulders and went back to staring at the TV, totally engrossed in his episode of Friends.

His answer caught me by surprise. Had I spoken that loudly?

"Here for you how?" I whispered.

He tore his eyes from the TV once more, his eyebrows dipping low and slanting as if I was harassing the hell out of him.

"Sexually."

One word.