Deborah pulled into the back parking lot of the store and went in the rear entrance through to the front of the shop. The front window was tinted to keep the brilliant sun from bleaching out the merchandise and the closed sign was hanging on the door. She went into the small office and tossed her purse on the desk.

"Not another mood." The woman sitting on the loveseat with her shoeless feet up on the hassock in front, bit into her sandwich and chewed, watching her visitor.

"He just makes me so mad sometimes." Deborah opened the tiny fridge and helped herself to a bottle of water. "Now he's having fantasies about Jeannette Whyst." She twisted the cap off and took a long swallow.

"So do most men in this town. I've even looked twice a couple of times."

"Grace!"

"Looked, Deb. Just looked."

"I would hope, you're a mother for heaven's sake."

"Oh, so that takes me off the board does it? Mom's don't qualify for fantasy?"

"I'm sorry; you know I didn't mean it that way. I didn't come to argue, Grace."

"Okay. Want some Havarti and rye bread?"

"No thanks, I ate earlier. So what's the arrangement going to be?"

"Well, Lolly wants him gone and she won't change her mind. She caught him flat-footed with his hand up the back of the waitress' skirt. I think she was envious."

"My God, two years and he's messing around. Whatever happened to vows?"

"Nothing. Lolly's made hers. He goes or she'll carve a notch in his balls for each transgression. They'd better be big," Grace reflected. He's been pretty naughty from what I've heard." She finished her sandwich and sat up, balling the wax paper wrap and firing it across the room into the wastebasket.

"I meant marital vows."

"I know." Grace stood and adjusted her dress. "It's easy to make them at the time. Everything is bluebirds and angels. You don't think much past the moment when you say the words. Besides, Lolly's no angel. She's cut a swath through the tennis pros in town that left a lot of maimed and wounded."

"Is that how you feel about you and Harry?"

"What?"

"What you said about vows."

"Honestly? Sometimes. I don't think he's fooling around but then he might as well . . . I do."

"That doesn't make it right, Grace."

"Does for me." She stretched and walked past Deborah out to the storefront and took down the closed sign.

"Don't you love Harry?" Deborah followed her out.

"Sure I do. We have a lot of good things together. It's just that I spend a lot of days in this shop dealing with guys who are always on the hunt and flirting and it just points out the hundreds of opportunities that are always out there waiting to be snatched up."

"You're just talking sex, Grace, not relationships."

"You got that right. Sex is no different than having dinner with someone or going to a movie together. Doesn't affect my feelings for Harry."

"Don't be absurd, it's totally different. You're giving a part of yourself away each time. With Harry it's something you give one another."

Grace leaned on the counter and picked at the edge of the cash register. "I know, Deb. It's really more a case of boredom I guess. Not with Harry or our life together, a boredom of the mind. Everything around is charged with selling sex. After a while you tire of just reading and seeing the ads and the films and the books... . . . you want to try it yourself-- just to see, you know?"

"You need a hobby, girl." Deborah sighed.

"I have one. She's twenty-six and built like the proverbial outhouse."

"Grace!"

"Don't worry, it isn't serious. That's what I mean about trying it. It isn't serious. It's like someone says to you, have you tried this, like some food or other, and you say no. They say you should, so you do. You like it or you don't, but if you don't try it you'll never know."

"That's the trouble, some people get to like it too much."

"They're not just trying it, they're hunting it down. There's a huge difference, Deb." She stood and began straightening things on the counter. "Look at you and Gordon. You think he's fooling around right now and yet when you went out with that guy from the museum tour, you thought it was fine. You were just trying it out, not hunting."

"Gordon is fooling around, I can feel it."

"Listen to yourself. He's a guy. He's going to look at his pallbearers if they're women. Most of them have got it right, the married ones. Looking is their ultimate transgression. They can fantasize without actually taking the step. Women have it different. We either respond or not. If we do it means taking that step, there's no alternative."

"Balls."

"The more the merrier," Grace laughed. "Let's get off this topic. We'll never agree so why waste time." She came over to Deborah and kissed her warmly.

"You've taken down the sign." Deborah said, stroking her friend's arm.

"Because I have to make a living so that I can afford to stay closed a little longer on some days." She winked and turned Deborah around. "Off you go Kiddo. I'll see you tonight at Kit's place. I agree we have to intervene with Lolly, even if it's to keep her from following through on her threat."

Deborah stopped in the doorway. "Is this just a taste for us, Grace?"

"It is for me, Kiddo so don't get any ideas."

"I haven't. I just wanted to be sure. It's something I've always wondered about."

"You see, that's what I just said. And?"

"It's different. Gentler. More. . . understanding about the partner. For me anyway."

"Take your knowledge and apply it to Gordon. He's a good guy, Deb."

"I know. See you tonight."