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We slept one either side of him in the huge bed, in most of our clothes. He was in gray jersey shorts. He smelled expensive; I remember that. I remember the expensive-feeling hotel room darkness, too, and thinking that I was there on false pretenses, really, that it was like being thrown forward in…

There was something of the quality of a miracle about it. Like atonement or forgiveness, a life given to her that she didn’t deserve. She and Peter found a new apartment so as to have more room. And she finally relented⁠—⁠they bought a house on Cabot Lake. It made more sense to her now, to have thi…

At times, she wondered if she meant to destroy her marriage. But most often she went out of excitement or curiosity⁠—⁠to see again what it was to go to his house, to undress, to have an affair. But to approach an affair so lovelessly was perhaps not to really understand what one was at all.

She and Peter had begun dating at nineteen. She’d broken up with him twice in college. Both times, he’d convinced her to take him back, saying he couldn’t live without her. She didn’t really believe him capable of such extreme emotion. He’d always be stable and predictable, she felt.

She’d seen …

The next morning, she changed into her swimsuit and went swimming. She again found Eleu sitting on his dock.

“Do you want to come inside?” he asked her. Already she wondered if something would happen.

The walls of his house were paneled with dark wood. On them hung very ordinary photographs, …