“Why would we pay for a new fridge when I’m willing to try to fix this one? It’s not like I’m asking you to do the repairs.”
I gave up. “What do you want to do for our anniversary?” I asked. “This is a big one.”
“Fifteen years.” Yawning, Ali carried his coffee to sit at the island. “Whatever you like. Except that it can’t be next weekend.”
“Why not?” This year’s anniversary fell on a Thursday. We usually celebrated on the closest Saturday.
“I’m going on a golf weekend with some of the guys from work.”
“Really?” I poured a little nondairy creamer into my coffee, turning the rich black color into a creamy brown. “Since when do you have golf weekends?”
“Since next weekend.”
Coffee in hand, I leaned back against the counter. “That’s weird.”
“Why?”
“Because you’ve never gone away on a golf weekend before.”
“Jake has some free tickets and invited a few of us to go.” He studied me. “Do you prefer that I stay home?”
I sipped my coffee. “Where is this happening?”
“Someplace in North Carolina. It’s supposed to be one of the nicest golf courses on the East Coast.”
“You’d rather go golfing with the guys than celebrate our fifteenth anniversary with your devoted wife?” I teased him. “Just what are you boys planning to get up to?” Ali rarely took time to go out and have fun with the boys. We could easily celebrate our anniversary another weekend.
Ali’s expression grew serious. “You do know that I would never cheat on you.”
“Whoa. Where did that come from? I was kidding. Obviously.” I often joked around with Ali. But he was clearly tense, his body rigid, his mouth contorted in a half grimace.
“I would never purposely hurt you,” he insisted. “Never.”
“I know. I waskidding.” I put my hand on his arm, feeling the muscles in his forearm relax beneath my fingers. He seemed to want tosay more, but I kissed him. He kissed me back like he meant it. A pretty intense kiss for a lazy Saturday morning.
When he pulled back, he said, “I don’t have to go if you don’t want me to.” Then he shot me a playful look. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life hearing how I skipped out on our anniversary to go play golf with my buddies.”
“I could get a lot of leverage out of that.” I suggestively batted my eyelashes, relieved that we’d fallen back into our usual couple banter. “And here I was planning to cover myself in plastic wrap so you could ‘open’ me as an anniversary gift and we could have superhot sex.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “Ooh, baby.”
“At least now I’ll save money on plastic wrap. That should make you happy.”
He sipped his coffee. “Now you’rereallyturning me on.”
I laughed. Our sex life wasn’t as active as it had once been, but we still made love once or twice a week. It was warm and lovely, comfortably satisfying. I viewed the decreased frequency as a natural ebbing for a busy couple that had been together a long time.
The refrigerator started rattling again. I rolled my eyes. “Pleeeease can we get a new refrigerator?”
“Sure,” he replied, “as soon as this one breaks. Or if I can’t get this thing to stop making noise.”
“Fine. Go on your golf weekend.” I straightened and took my coffee with me.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“Away from that obnoxious refrigerator.” I was much more irritated by the fridge than Ali’s going away on the Saturday we’d normally celebrate our anniversary. “Maybe I’ll make a unilateral decision and buy a new fridge while you’re off golfing with your buddies.”
“You could always welcome me back home with that plastic wrap idea,” he called after me.
