She looked down at Kevin and Natalie still embraced, their hands continuing to wander in sensuous little circles across one another's bodies. Their indifference to her seemed total, and she experienced the odd feeling of being a complete stranger in her own house. As she turned to leave, she glimpsed Kevin press his face against Natalie's cheek. The moon had risen over the houses across the street and was shining eerily through the windows behind them. Their faces were caught in the incandescent glow in front. Kevin's mouth moved closer to Natalie's moist full lips, and suddenly he kissed her. The wetly sucking sound of the girl receiving his tongue seemed to reverberate across the room. A kiss, innocent enough between the two newlyweds, Liz thought, should not be so hard for her to understand… or take! What was happening to her? She couldn't really tell whether she was frustrated or jealous. And if she was jealous, what was she jealous of, her son or what they had together! She set the electric percolator near the outlet by the table. But her mind wandered back to the pitcher of martinis, which was replenished and sitting in the refrigerator. Coffee was not good when her nerves were so on edge, she thought. What she really needed was another drink. If Tom followed his usual pattern of late, he would be home quite late, if at all, and she had to have something to dampen that insatiable burning that seemed to erupt inside her belly from time to time. It would also make her sleep and forget to wonder where he was and what he was really doing!

"Oh, stop it, Kevin, not here," she heard Natalie's voice ring out from the living room. "Don't touch me like that! It drives me crazy!"