Page 63 of Seven Year Itch
I feel the corner of my mouth turn down as I glance over at her. “You should be confident, Dakota. You’re fucking beautiful.”
She stills, and her cheeks flush with my praise as her eyes blink with a softness that I rarely ever see on her. She’s quiet for a moment before finally she says, “I just know I don’t want to end up in another relationship where I’m insecure and letting a man get in my head. And I think a little foray with some sex-positive individuals will help me with that.”
“All this because some ass fuck called you boring in bed?” My head jerks when I notice that Dakota is no longer beside me.
I turn on my heel to find her frowning, her eyes filled with way more emotion than they were just a second ago.
“Fuck, I’m sorry. That was harsh.” I walk over to her and stand awkwardly, unsure what to say or do to get myself out of this. Even Milkshake feels the tension as she stops purring and stares up at me likeYou put your foot in your mouth there, you idiot.“I don’t know shit about you and Randal. I shouldn’t pass judgment. I just really don’t like that guy, and my mouth does the talking before my brain does the thinking. I don’t know anything about your marriage to him.”
She offers me a weak shrug. “On the surface, people would probably call our split the classic seven year itch.”
“Seven year itch?” I frown, unfamiliar with the term.
“They say seven years is the point in a marriage where the steam starts to fizzle, and they can’t hold their mask up anymore. Thereal themis revealed.” She sighs before adding, “Usually someone in the relationship cheats.”
“He cheated?” My teeth crack as my hand tightens around my cat.
“No, that would have been too easy. Instead, Randal said our marriage failed because I lost the confidence I had with my smaller body, which in turn, ruined our sex life. He literally said I let myself go.”
I drop my head to my chest as dread washes over me. It’s moments like this that I really hate being a man. “What a fucker.”
“He usually only said it when he was drunk. But they always say the truth comes out when you’re drunk.”
“It’s not true... You’re just as beautiful now as the day I met you.”
“In my right mind, I can believe that,” she says, her eyes looking up at me with an introspective glint to them. “I see the girls in a size ten–twelve body on Instagram and think they are so hot. I see myself in them and feel good in a lot of the clothes I wear. But when the man you choose to share your life with gets drunk and starts making digs at your body, it really fucks with a girl’s self-esteem.”
My chest contracts at the stricken look in her face. “It sounds like he’s an alcoholic and an asshole, which is a him problem, not a you problem.”
“He would quit drinking sometimes and things would get better, but as soon as he’d let himself partake again, the same stuff would come out of his mouth. Somewhere along the line, he developed all this pent-up resentment toward me that he could never communicate in a healthy way. It’s no wonder he thought I was boring in bed. Never wanting to have sex with your partnerispretty boring.”
“Sex is about give-and-take,” I state confidently, desperate to shift Dakota back to the positive, bubbly girl she was when she knocked on my door ten minutes ago. “Him asking for something you weren’t comfortable enough to give means he wasn’t giving you what you needed to feel safe. That’s not boring, that’s just expected.”
Her lips part as she stares up at me, her eyes swimming with a million different emotions I can’t all place. “Have you gone to therapy or something?” she asks, staring intently at me.
“No... but I do read a book on occasion,” I admit, leaving out the bit about them being audiobooks. Audiobooks count as reading, right? They sure make the long days on the job sight a lot less monotonous. Thrillers are usually my book of choice, but I listen to some self-help ones when I’m feeling down.
I have my father to thank for that life hack. He always saidwhy pay a therapist when you can rent an audiobook from a library for free?I’m not sure that was the most emotionally intelligent advice he ever gave, but it’s not bad for a guy like me who would never take the time to go see a doctor.
“I wish Randal had picked up a book here and there because toward the end, he thought a baby would fix all our problems, and I know there’s no literature that would make that claim.”
I wince and attempt to brace myself for what she says next.
“I told him we needed to fix our relationship before we added another human to it, but he kept bringing it up. Said I was unhappy because I was stagnant. Working the same job, in the same house, with the same guy. He said we needed a change. But the thing is... I love my store. I started it straight out of college, and Istillget an endorphin boost every time I step foot inside. Why would I want that to change? I’m proud of what I built.”
“You should be proud.” I feel my temper rise over the thought of Randal, a bartender, ever trying to tell Dakota anything about her business. That’d be like me telling her how to curl her damn hair.
She inhales a shaky breath and looks down at the ground when she adds, “Then there was the condom mishap.” My eyes burn into her as she continues to look down at the ground. “He took off the condom in the middle of sex once and came inside of me without asking.”
“Fucking hell.” My hands forming tight fists at my sides. “Are you serious?”
She crosses her arms and turns away from me with a nod. “I’ve never reacted well to birth control, so condoms were our only form of protection all the years we were married. It was dark, and he said he was just adjusting it, but he wasn’t. He took it off on purpose, and I didn’t notice until it was too late. He even admitted it. Said he was letting destiny decide for us.”
“Jesus fuck,” I spit, wishing Randal was here right now so I could rip his head off.
“I felt violated, like my decision to have a family with him was taken from me. It was awful. That entire month was hell waiting to see if I was pregnant or not. When my period finally showed up, I don’t think I’d ever felt more relieved in my entire life. I literally cried tears of happiness in the bathroom at my shop. So much so, one of my employees knocked on the door to make sure I was okay.”
I move closer to Dakota. She looks raw and bare in this moment surrounded by the heavy pine and quiet hush of nature. Different from any other time I’ve seen her. I swear, the mountain has this weird ability to lower your guard. The solace of it gives you the confidence to really lay yourself out bare.
