Pop Quiz

Thanks to Rehnquist for his feedback on the first and second drafts of this story and his reminder that "there's no such thing as good writing, just good editing!"

* * *

Nicole sat alone in a small conference room, several floors up in an edge-of-downtown office building. Spread out on the table in front of her were the divorce papers her husband, Tom, was asking her to sign. After much negotiation through their lawyers, he'd agreed to meet with her, here. She waited for him to arrive, rehearsing once more the speech she hoped would cause him to reconsider.

Her heart, already pounding, nearly thundered when Tom entered the room. She had not been this physically close to him for some time. Even when exchanging the kids for visitations, Tom had kept his distance.

Nervously, she smiled and started to rise; but Tom put his hand out, gesturing for her to stay seated. He took a chair opposite to her and slowly sank into it. He looked at her, sighed, and shrugged his shoulders.

"Tom," she said, "thanks for meeting with me. I have a lot to say. I...I wrote it down, to be sure that I..."

She reached into her purse and drew out an envelope. She'd handwritten his name on it, in flowing script. With shaking hands, she began to open it.

"Nicole...stop."

She looked up. Tom was reaching for an unmarked envelope on the table. Her hopes rose, as if borne on a sudden gust of warm wind. Was her fantasy going to come true?

He wrote his own letter. He's going to forgive me. He's going to tear up all these other papers and take me home.

Then the wind died, and Nicole's hopes fell back to earth. It was too much to expect, she realized, that Tom would have something so wonderful to say to her; besides, even if he did, it wouldn't be right that he go first. Hands still shaking, she resumed the surprisingly difficult task of extricating her letter from the envelope.

"Nicole, please...stop."

This time, Nicole felt a different sort of gust. A cold chill. Something in Tom's voice...

And what's in that envelope he's holding?

"Nicole," he said slowly, "I agree to meet you here. So I have. Now I'm going to leave."

No...NO! What...

While Nicole struggled to formulate some kind of protest, Tom put his envelope on the table and pushed it towards her.

"Whatever you wanted to say to me...well, read this first."

Nicole stared at it, afraid to touch it. Meanwhile, Tom rose from his chair.

"It's...well, you'll see," he said, before turning towards the door.

Tentatively, she reached for the envelope. As she did, Tom left the room. Once again, Nicole was alone.

She unsealed the envelope and looked inside. It seemed to contain a single sheet of paper. Hands shaking even worse now, she removed the document with great difficulty, unfolded it, and studied it.

Printed on the page, on the left-hand side, were five statements, each numbered. In columns, to the right of the first four statements, were the words "TRUE" and "FALSE." It was a quiz. A "true or false" quiz.

She wondered if there was any meaning in that.

Is this my chance—my last chance—to prove myself true, and win him back?

Nicole picked up the pen and considered the first statement.

* * *

"1. I never forgot your birthday or our wedding anniversary."

The statement puzzled her. She'd never accused Tom of forgetting those dates. What was his point?

She read the statement again. Still puzzled, she put the quiz down on the table. Something began to tug at her mind; something familiar.

Table...I was sitting at a table...important dates, missed...

Then she remembered.

* * *

She was sitting at a table with her neighbor, Sheila. They were having coffee in Sheila's kitchen. Eventually, the conversation turned to family matters.

"Bob is driving me crazy," Sheila said. "Did I tell you, he forgot about our wedding anniversary again? He does that almost every year. He's not much better with Valentine's Day, or my birthday...always remembers Mothers' Day, though! Never misses taking his mother out to brunch, makes reservations weeks in advance..."

Nicole chuckled.

"Easy for you to laugh, Nicole. You've got it all there in Tom. If only Bob were more like him."

"Well, it's not all..." Nicole stopped herself and took a large sip from her cup.

"Not all what?"

"I guess..." Nicole stopped herself again and looked out the window, towards her house.

Sheila leaned towards her, eyebrows raised. "C'mon, don't let me be the only sad, whiny bitch here!"

Nicole could see that she needed some cheering up-or at least, some assurance that she wasn't as alone as she felt.

"You know, maybe from the outside everything looks great over there," Nicole said slowly, nodding towards the window, "but if you...well, what's it they say? 'Appearances can be deceiving?'"

Intrigued, Sheila refilled Nicole's cup and stared expectantly at her.

"It's like...well, last weekend, Tom was home, I asked him to change some light bulbs. Night rolls around, I turn on the lights...nothing. He'd forgotten. Glued to the couch, watching sports all day. I know he gets tired from work, I didn't say anything, but I just felt like..."

"Honey, I know," Sheila said, putting her hand on Nicole's. "And don't get me started on dishes."

"Dishes!" Nicole exclaimed. "If Tom would just wipe his plate off and put it in the sink, instead of piling the cruddy things up on the countertop..."

"Yeah," Sheila replied, "and get this. After I've washed the dishes, put the kids to sleep, I crawl into bed, just wanting to read for a few minutes before I conk out-and Bob jumps in, smirking, wants to...you know, get friendly."

Nicole huffed in sympathy. "Been there, done that. The old 'grab my boob' thing. Like that's supposed to instantly get me wet—"

Embarrassed at her sauciness, Nicole covered her mouth and looked down at her cup. Sheila, not offended, just laughed. Then Nicole cracked up, too.

The gripe-fest continued. For a while, Nicole thought of her contributions as just a show of camaraderie and a bit of harmless fun. But as the gripes—including hers—got more and more serious, there was no more laughter.

Later, when Tom came home and did something that rubbed Nicole the wrong way, she pouted about it more than she might have done before.

* * *

As the scene faded back into Nicole's memory, she looked again at the first statement on the quiz.

"I never forgot your birthday or our wedding anniversary."

Tom couldn't have known about the conversation with Sheila. That couldn't have been his point. So why had that memory come to her, just now?

Because that was the beginning of all this, wasn't it? Not exactly, I guess...the things I said to Sheila, the things I huffed about later, they'd been going on for some time already. It was just the first time I admitted to someone else—hmm, before I even admitted to myself—that I was unhappy in any way. After that, I indulged that unhappy feeling every time I thought I had a reason, didn't I?

In the counseling that Nicole had started recently, she'd talked a lot with her therapist, Dr. Silver, about stress. Stress from juggling the two kids, a part-time job, her ailing parents, and her husband. Dr. Silver had asked her how she'd managed it.

Not well. I would stew over things about Tom, not realizing how hot and pressurized the magma was getting. When I finally would say something to him, it was never constructive; just an eruption.

Tom wasn't participating in the counseling. No, he didn't want anything to do with Nicole these days. But before things got—well, to where they were now—he admitted that he hadn't been the perfect husband. If she was trying to give him a wake-up call, he said, he'd gotten the message.

But it wasn't a wake-up call. It was a good-night call. Good-night to our marriage. I told him it was too late. That I didn't love him anymore.

Tom had been good about remembering important dates, though. For a moment, the statement on the quiz again seemed trivial. Yet, given Nicole's situation, there had to be more to it, right?

Never forgot my birthday...never forgot...me?

Never forgot our wedding anniversary...never forgot...us?

Like her, Tom had been forced to juggle. He had the same kids, of course. He too had a spouse-a spouse who, with increasingly frequency, was blowing up at him. He didn't have ailing parents, but he had a full-time job. It made ceaseless demands upon his attention and energy.

But he drew boundaries, as best he could. He made mistakes, forgot a lot of little things, mishandled even a few important things...but he never forgot me, never forgot us.

I should have let the small stuff go. And I should have put more effort into improving the important things. Instead, I just let it all fester, equally.

All that time I was thinking about him, I'd really forgotten about him. All the things I liked about him. Loved about him.

And I forgot about us. It became all about me.

Bringing the pen to the level of the first statement on the quiz, Nicole traced to the right and circled the word "true."

* * *

"2. You turned down Italy."

Wow, Nicole thought. The Italy thing. What did that have to do with their present situation? It had been, what, five years ago? No, four maybe?

Or three? Two? Damn, I really have no idea. Is my life, before all...this...started to happen, really that blurry?

Though it had nothing to do with the "Italy thing," Nicole found herself thinking about another time she'd been sitting in an office, feeling blurry—blurry-eyed, to be specific.

* * *

It was a late night at work, and a quiet one. The office was empty except for Nicole and Jake, an outside consultant brought in to assist with the project. The deadline was six weeks away, but there was still so much to do.

"Rough working these odd hours, hey?" Jake said, furiously typing away.

"Yeah," Nicole replied, "every week my schedule gets reshuffled. But it's...well, nice to be trusted with a significant part of the project, even though I'm just a part-timer."

"I don't get that. You seem like the glue that holds this place together. I'll bet you'll get a full-time position out of this, when it's over."

"Maybe, assuming we pull it off."

"Yeah. Guess I better type faster!"

Jake started hitting the keys so quickly that he couldn't possibly be entering anything correctly. Nicole laughed.

Being around Jake made the long, odd hours tolerable, even fun. He was a cut-up, and easy on the eyes, especially for a consultant. Unlike her regular co-workers, he made her feel intelligent, witty, and best of all, attractive. Though he'd never been forward, she'd caught him looking her over more than once.

Tonight, however, he seemed distracted, almost somber.

"So," she asked him, "what are you going to get out this, when it's over?"

"Probably just another..." He waved at the papers spread about. "And not with someone like you. It'll be some asshole, and I'll want to quit and...well, let's just say this line of work isn't what I thought it would be, but I don't see a better option right now."

She asked him to explain. At first, he was dismissive, reluctant to talk about himself. But when she pressed him, something gave way. He stopped typing. When he finally spoke, out spilled a story of frustrations, regrets, and unrealized dreams.

Nicole listened attentively. His past was interesting. His hopes for the future were interesting too. What struck Nicole most, however, was the very idea that the future could be interesting. When, in recent years, had the future seemed to her anything more than an interminable repetition of her present?

Their talk that night led to many more—and increasingly personal—discussions. Not all were in the office. There were lunch breaks on those days when they were working regular hours, and dinner breaks during those increasingly frequent late nights as the deadline approached.

The more she watched him talk, the more she became obsessed with his lips.

With how it might feel to kiss them.

* * *

Recoiling at the illicitness of that last thought, Nicole ended her trip down memory lane and focused again on the quiz.

The Italy thing. Tom wanted to go to Italy. Just him and me. Leave the kids with the grandparents.

I said no. Wait, did I actually say it? Maybe, but more likely, I just wore him down with doubts, issues, and reluctance, until he gave up.

What had been those doubts, those issues? The basis for the reluctance?

It wasn't because of Jake. Hadn't met him yet. Wasn't because of the project at all; that came a long time after.

Was it work in general? The kids? The expense? Having to pack, and then live out of a suitcase? The long flights, the jet lag? Not speaking the language?

It could have been any and all of those things, but honestly, I don't remember.

As Nicole searched her thoughts and feelings for more clarity, she felt something unsettling begin to bubble up. Her first instinct was to ignore it, to suppress it, until she looked at the quiz again.

True or false. This is a test.

She let the bubbles rise.

It probably was all those things, and a thousand other little things, but at the core...I just didn't want to go with Tom. What would I do with him? I guess I just wasn't interested. Or, if I was interested, for some reason I fought it. Fought it off, instead of fighting for it...

The rising bubbles became a geyser.

But it wasn't just about him, was it? No, I was down on myself then, too. I didn't believe I could keep him happy for ten days. What would we do? What would we talk about? We knew everything about each other that we'd ever want to know; what was left to share?

And as for the future...well, that wasn't any more exciting, it had seemed. Talk about what the kids had ahead of them, the cost of college, if they could even get into good ones? Blah. Talk about what the future held at work? Blah. Talk about...

Blah, blah, blah.

It wasn't just that I'd lost interest in Tom, though that might have been true. I'd lost interest in myself. I'd lost interest in...interest.

Then something happened, when I met Jake. I found him interesting. I liked being interested in something. And I liked it that he found me interesting.

Nicole's attention returned to the quiz.

"You turned down Italy."

Yes, she'd turned Tom down on Italy. What else had she turned him down on, over the years?

How many other romantic plans did I ruin? How many times did I swat him away, like a fly, when he would come on to me, pathetically perhaps, but spontaneously, hoping to ignite some passion? And when he was down, exhausted, distracted, unable to be the spark in our relationship...when did I ever pick up the slack?

Nicole circled "true" after the second statement and looked fearfully to the next one.

* * *

3. "Since we were married, you've been my only lover."

Nicole read the statement several times, lingering particularly on one word.

Lover.

She mouthed the word, silently, over and over. Such an uncommon word in ordinary conversation. When had she last heard someone use it? What did it mean?

Someone you have sex with?

Again, Nicole's thoughts drifted back in time, but not to a scene in her office, Sheila's kitchen, or some other familiar place. Instead, she remembered a hotel room.

* * *

There was no slow seduction. No necking, no petting, no tender, romantic, tentative kissing. Not like at the bar, two weeks ago, when they were celebrating the completion of the project. No, they'd been come to this hotel room for something more.

Hurriedly, they began to undress. By the time Nicole was down to her bra and panties, she was trembling, almost violently. She was nervous, but was it from excitement or guilt? Maybe both?

There was plain old fear, too—it had been a long time since she'd revealed her body to a new man. She'd been so much younger, fitter, and prettier then. How would a man see her now?

Nicole was especially worried about removing her next article of clothing. Her breasts, once proud assets, were not what they used to be. As she prepared to release them, she turned her back to Jake, hoping the room would suddenly go dark.

A shadow fell on her, but it was only from Jake, stepping towards her. He reached for the clasp of her bra and undid it. As her bra started to fall away, she brought her hands up to cover herself. Gently, he pushed her hands down, drew closer, and looked over her shoulder.

He gasped. For a moment, she thought it might be in disappointment, but he quickly dispelled that notion. Reaching around her, he took her breasts in his hands and moaned.

"You're so gorgeous," he whispered in her ear.

She found the sincerity and hunger in his voice as stimulating as the hot breath on her neck and the urgent manner of his caresses. Her nipples were swollen, erect. When his fingers grazed them, her whole body felt electrified.

Closing her eyes, she leaned back into him, her arm reaching for the back of his head. When his lips fell upon her neck, she went weak in the knees. As he steadied her, she felt something hard press against her backside. Subtly, she swayed against it, as if trying to confirm her suspicions.

Jake took notice. He released her breasts, removed his briefs, and turned her around. Taking her hand, he placed it on his cock. It felt so warm, so pulsating...and so hard! Hard for her!

He wavered, as if transfixed by the pleasure she was delivering by stroking him. Then, after a passionate kiss, he gently removed her hand, sunk to his knees, and placed his hands on her hips. His face was directly in front of her panties.

His fingers slipped under the waistband.

Nicole shivered in expectation. This was it—the point of no return. In a moment, they would both be completely revealed to each other, and lust would run its course.

She placed her hands on Jake's head and ran her fingers through his hair, signaling that she wanted him to continue.

As Jake proceeded to slowly lower her panties down her legs, she realized she was still wearing her high-heel shoes. Being in an unfamiliar place, naked, and about to have sex with a man who was not her husband had charged her up so much already. Yet now, she had a thought that made her pussy tingle even more.

When her panties reached her ankles, Jake made as if to remove her shoes. She tapped his shoulder. When he looked up, she shook her head, "No."

His eyes bulged and his smile curled with amazement and desire. Staring down at that face, she swore she could feel moisture flooding inside her. She stepped out of her panties and seductively kicked them aside.

Jake's eyes again flared at hers, then traveled down the length of her body to her exposed bush, which she'd neatly trimmed just the day before. The anticipation at what Jake would do next-and what else they would do to each other, here in this room-was exquisite. Anticipation had not been part of her sex life for a long, long time.

An hour later, when they were done, Jake left the hotel room first. Just before closing the door behind him, he blew her a kiss. Hastily, she blew one back at him. It felt a bit awkward, but it also made her giggle. She could not remember the last time she had giggled over anything.

Lying in bed, sweaty and disheveled, she felt cum leaking out of her. Not her husband's cum. She had allowed another man to come in her; she had made another man come in her! The thoughts were at once both prideful and shameful, both thrilling and terrifying.

* * *

Back in the present, Nicole felt flush, but only slightly so. She wondered how she could have felt so differently about Jake back then. Now, it was Tom who she wished would meet her in some hotel room and fuck her brains out.