An online novel by Gillette Edmunds

Chuck suspected Barbara had seen him with Lorilye. Though he had been with many women by the time he met Barbara, he found out Barbara was a virgin, and came up with a story to keep her from suspecting he just wanted to sleep with her like all the rest. He told her she was his second and the first he was really in love with.

But an odd thing happened. He found he needed Barbara in a way he had never needed a woman before. All the women before were disposable and replaceable. He was deeply depressed in medical school about his lack of ability. Sex with Barbara was the only thing that lifted him out of his depression. And she had other qualities that he wanted. He was attracted by her looks, her loyalty, and because she was the daughter of an established Baltimore attorney. He loved going out to Baltimore the year before their marriage and hanging around the old country club and around the yachting set. He had learned golf from a young professor in the medical school his first year and was able, within two years, to beat Barbara’s father, who had played for thirty years. Charles then saw himself as one of them, one of the country club set, though he believed he needed to study food, wine, manners, all the things he hadn’t grown up with and assumed rich people knew about, before he would fit in. When Barbara wanted to try out for cheerleading her senior year, he told her it was not becoming of a future doctors wife to be a cheerleader. She said it had been all right for a lawyer’s daughter to be a freshman cheerleader. He then claimed she was overweight and would not make the squad. She took that as a jealous lie, knowing her weight was perfect, and an expression of protectiveness. How jealous would he be to see her in a short skirt and small blouse in front of 80,000 football fans and the football teams? She was flattered and stopped practicing for the squad.