“I can’t.”

“What? We’re here now. What are you talking about?”

“I don’t want to go in,” I said, my face flushing red.

“You’re kidding! Don’t be ridiculous,” my best friend Trish said.

“I mean it. Let’s go,” I whispered, turning to go.

“Stop it, Sheila. We’re going in,” with that, she grabbed my arm and dragged me inside.

A fucking sex shop! What if someone saw us? What would we say? I’d die of embarrassment.

I’d never been in one before, never knew any actually existed in my own hometown; thought you could only buy stuff like that online.

My sex life was deteriorating. My husband John seemed to have lost interest, and I was trying to bring a spark back in. We’d always been so conservative. Never having explored any of our fantasies. In fact, we’d never even discussed them.

We were happy, don’t get me wrong, but I was beginning to have fantasies about other men while sleeping. The more I didn’t want to, the more I dreamed, and they were raunchy, had me waking up wet with desire. How could I approach John horny as hell? He’d realize I’d been dreaming about other men. I was in a real dilemma.

And now here I was, standing in a sex shop. My mouth dropped from the size of the place and all the different products. Trish grabbed my arm and dragged me over to the dildos. There were hundreds of them. All different styles, colors, and lengths.

She stood there, staring at them, her forehead wrinkled, reading the directions as she picked up one box, then another. She opened the box and squeezed to check the realism of the materials used, wanted me to do the same, but I hung back, and watched. Chuckling to herself, she finally decided on one.

“Check this one out,” she said, presenting me one which appeared to have a pearl necklace in it.

“Jack Rabbit,” she read from the box. “Hmm, multi-speed, dual-action controls. Intense clitoral stimulation.” Raising her eyebrows, she nodded. “We’ll take it,” she said, popping it into my basket.

I flushed red. I could feel the heat on my neck as I peered around the room. No one was glancing our way, all busy doing their own thing. I thought for sure people would be scrutinizing me, but no one did. I smoothed my hair, lifted my chin, and pretended to be okay. To be honest, I did feel more relaxed as I followed Trish to the next display.