California, November 2008

One month before Christmas, my girlfriends started talking about sex while I quietly snuck into the other room to check the voice messages my husband Frank had left me for the day.He'd always had something mundane planned for me to do with his money and I was eager to find out if this time it'd be different. I hadn't had the chance to check my voice mail earlier,since my friends showed up very early in the morning ready to have fun. Now,late in the afternoon when I could finally catch my breath, it was the perfect time to find out.

“I’m going to be home late sweetheart, and you know why, so don’t wait for me. I have a load of work to do. Go out with your girlfriends and party all night like single gals, but don’t stay up for me. I've left money in the stand and I hope it'll be enough for the four of you! Bye.”

“Damn!” I whispered to myself.

“Gaby, this is our reunion, keep away from that phone.”

Vanessa snatched the phone from my hand since she was closest. I had no choice, it was either surrender it to her or toss it away. I wasn't ready to give it up completely. I reached for it after Vanessa took it from me, but she did a good job of playing ‘keep away' with it.

They were talking about sex; something that hadn't existed in my marriage for quite some time. Allow me to make myself more understood. A conversation like this was rare these days. Some of my friends had become mothers, but I never noticed how I'd managed to talk myself into a corner. After all, even the single ones had become hot mammas and still had more sex than me! As a married woman of three years, with no babies to take care of, I should have had a lot to add to the conversations. If only I wasn’t always the quiet one.