At five o'clock the front door opened. "Honey, are you dressed? Martin's with me."

Oh, no! she thought, when she heard his voice from the living room. She had hoped for at least a few minutes alone with him before he had to leave. Opening the bedroom door, she could see her husband mixing a fast Martini behind the bar in the den. She glanced at the gray flanneled back of the six foot, grey templed man standing in the center of the room, Martin Kelly.

"Hello, Martin," she said.

He turned to look at her, greeting her with a large grin as he always did. She smiled back at the soft, grey eyes that always seemed to penetrate her when they looked in her direction. Martin Kelly had no excess on his face or his body. Janet admired him for a quick second. She always marveled at how well he looked. Except for the greying temples she would never have thought him to be a day over thirty-two or three, but then, forty wasn't old either.

She walked past him and met Greg halfway across the room. He gave her a drink and handed one to Martin, neglecting to kiss her on the cheek as he had done for the first three years of their marriage. But had sadly neglected doing it since they had moved from Louisville. For some reason he hadn't had the inclination to give her that little kiss of reassurance that she needed so badly each time he came home in the evening. "To Dallas and a quick trip home," Martin proposed and the trio drank to the toast. Janet downed her Martini in one unusually quick gulp, the disappointment readily apparent in her face.

"Hey, that is not like you at all," Martin smiled to her and gestured playfully with his finger.

And Greg didn't even notice, she thought rather bitterly, "It was too good to waste by letting it warm," she smiled grimly back at Martin, not even looking at her husband. "Besides, I have to celebrate my husband's promotion all alone tonight, so I may as well get started early."