Her husband's habitual enthusiasm irritated her that morning – he had no more sensitivity to the sticky Midwest heat than he apparently had to the icy winters – and his vulgar words only added fuel to the fire. While she'd certainly been agonizing about the dreaded lonely winter months which she was supposed to spend alone in Lakeview Estates while her new husband toured the southern circuit, the crude way he spoke brought a crimson color to her already heat-flush cheeks.

"What are you going on about, anyway?" she demanded, too flustered to remember at first that she was as good as naked in the sheer beach dress.

"Hey, baby, I like that get-up!" Verne whistled, his glinting blue eyes boring into her body in a way that made his nineteen year old wife feel sordid and dirty. "How come you never wore this pretty little see-through number before?"

"Verne, I wish you wouldn't talk to me like that!" Sandi said stiffly, folding her arms to hide her proud, high-set young breasts and wishing that she had four arms instead of two so that she could cover up her shamefully revealed vaginal hair as well. "What are you doing back here now, anyway? I thought you were going over to talk with Larry? You said you both had to talk to the lawyer about the contract for the circus…"

"Hey, don't get uptight, baby," Verne laughed, still in his usual high spirits despite his wife's unenthusiastic response. "Larry was – uh – occupied with his wife. So I just thought I'd run up to Gary and pick up some things for you. After all, I don't want folks to think I'm neglecting my woman just because I'm gonna be gone most of the winter. I want you to look real a la mode, baby!"

Sandi knew that she should be pleased that Verne had thought to expand her exclusively summer wardrobe, but all she could feel was irritation.