The sky is pretty tonight. I’ve always been partial to clouds in the evening, bunching up around the moon. I used to sit and watch them shift across the horizon when I was a girl in Tahiti. I hold a glass steady and pour an ounce of red wine into the basin, watching the crimson liquid splash into a pool.
 "Marina…" A voice says, and I turn around and give her a suave smile, and a steady gaze. "Can we…"
 "Yes?"
 "Talk?"
 I lick my lips and sip my wine, very slowly, regarding her with patience and intrigue. "Of course, Jenny."
 She sighs and I steps up to me. "Today was… He almost caught us."
 I don’t say anything. I sit my glass down on the glass table on my skyline porch and cross my arms over my chest.
 "What if he DID catch us, Marina? What would that mean?"
 "Well, he would finally know how you spend your afternoons."
 "Do you talk about me? To any of the girls?"
 "Why would I talk about you?" I ask her.
 She looks anxious. She looks stressed. "Because you feel powerful, pulling me away from Tim."
 "I don’t feel powerful."
 "Then why do you act so casual, like I’m not destroying my life to be with you?"
 I flip my head to one side and my hair cascades down my right shoulder, out of my face. "Destroying your life? Is that what this is to you?"
 She pouts, sticking her lip out, and she looks so adorable doing it. "No. No. I’m just so confused."
 I unfold my arms and walk up to her. In a swift motion, I have her wrapped in my embrace, her head against my collar. "Jenny, I don’t mean to hurt you."
 "I know that. I just… I can’t understand any of these feelings and we’re serious now."
 I pull away from her and raise my eyebrow. "We’re serious?"
 She looks terrified. "Aren’t we?"
 "I suppose we are." I give her a reassuring smile and hug her again.
 "Marina, you understand what’s going on don’t you? I’m not completely crazy am I?"
 I kiss her, and she melts into me as she always does when we are romantic. And then she becomes handsy and I have to keep her in check, my hands on her wrists, locking her into place.
 "Jenny I love you," I say, and she looks up at me her gaze pleading, tears filling her eyes.
 "Don’t say that," she murmers. "I can’t deal with you and Tim loving me."
 I ignore her wimpers, and her crying and I lead her, my hands still clamped around her arms, to my room. We topple back onto my bed and I pull her shirt over her head and her hair and toss it aside.
 "I love you Jenny," I say again and she begins to sob, one hand over her eyes, shaking slightly with what I assume is fear.
 "Oh Marina," she says, her voice wet with emotion, "Why are you making this so hard on me?"
 "Hard?" I reply, unzipping her jeans and pushing them over her hips, down past her thighs and finally off of her, to join her top on the carpet.
 "How am I supposed to choose between you and Tim? Tim will DIE when he finds out I’ve been unfaithful to him. He’s so wonderful Marina…"
 "But," I interupt her, "Do you love him?"
 She nods, tearfully. "Yes."
 "Hmm," I say, "Are you..IN love with him?" 
 We stay framed in each others gaze for many moments, and then slowly, her lips quivering, she shakes her head. "No. I’m not. I’m in love with you."
 I smile at her. "Okay. Then we’ll figure out his role in all of this when it comes to it."
 She arches her body and kisses me again and I mount her small frame, shimmying out of my clothes as well. Falling into the motion of our lovemaking, she acts the happiest she has ever acted, moving with me, caressing my shoulders as I pleasure her.
 Then, afterwards, when we both lay, glistening in the moonlight, she rolls over and huddles against me.
 "I’m don’t want to go home. I don’t want to be with him and think about being with you."
 I close my eyes. "Then stay here."
 "Tim…" is her one word response.
 I take her hand in mine and stroke the top of it with my thumb. "Tell him you stayed the night at a friends."
 Jenny sighs and falls into a deep sleep. I watch her, nestled against me, her eyelashed pressing so lightly against each other. I stroke her cheek and then rise to cloak myself and receive my wine, still sitting outside, in the evening air.
 She’s so sweet, I think. What do I do about Francesca? I sip my beverage slowly, and lean against the railing keeping me from plunging to my death on the street far below. Perhaps I can convince Jenny that I’m wrong for her. Perhaps I can try to salvage her marriage after all.
 But then again… She’s so…Wonderful. I could frame her, mold her, make her mine. But then what about Francesca? She’s… Dependability. But then again she isn’t dependable at all.
 Looking down at the street, I think about my friends Bette and Tina, so lovely in their monogamy. Envying them, I finish my drink and saunter back to my apartment, to lie with my lover, on my twisted sheets. I have weeks to figure out what I want. Right now I’ll focus on her form, fitting against mine so perfectly.

XXX