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3. I'm not in the mood!

Kirsten was sitting in her SUV. Her eyes wandered to the front door of the Cohen house. She'd been waiting for half an hour to get out but she couldn't. She couldn't deal with Sandy and her boys. What if they noticed something was wrong? She'd never wanted them to worry about her and that's what would come up if she told them. Worries. About her. She wiped away the tears and looked into the rear-view mirror. Her eyes were reddish and expressionless. What had she done? And what had he done?

Suddenly the front door opened and Ryan came out. After him walked Marissa. Of course, they had had a date tonight. Kirsten remembered and tried a smile on her face. Hopefully Ryan wouldn't see her tear-stained face. She got out of the car when Ryan and Marissa kissed each other a 'Good night'. Speedy she went to the door, tried to get inside while Ryan and Marissa were still with each other, but unfortunately they were done pretty fast. Ryan accompanied her through the door.

"Hey, sweetie. Good date?" She gave Ryan one of her best fake-smiles and tried to sound normal.

"Yeah, actually. What about you. You look bad." Ryan was concerned about Kirsten's behavior. She jumped a little when he had gotten in touch with her while they had walked through the door together. He had also seen the expression on her face.

"That's what a woman wants to hear." She tried to sound funny but somehow it wouldn't work out.

"Nah, I didn't mean that. You look just kinda sick. Maybe you should just lay down. Sleep some time. You know." Ryan was used to give other people advice about such things. Dawn had always been sick when she was drunk. Dawn had always been drunk, so he was really used to it. Kirsten smiled at him thankfully. She knew he was worried but he pretended not to be. She loved him for what he was. Ryan was the adult Seth could never be. Then she said him a quick 'Good night' and rushed to her bedroom. Their bedroom. The bedroom she shared with Sandy. What would he think? Or was he (hopefully) asleep? It was past eleven so her chances on that were good.

She stood in her bathroom and looked into the mirror. The tears had gone and her eyes were getting back to normal. She had taken a pajama with long sleeves and long trouser legs so that Sandy couldn't see the bruises. When she had come into their bedroom he was asleep and so she had decided to take a long shower to get the dirt off. Now she was feeling better. Not as good as she had been felling yesterday, of course. She tried to spend as much time as possible in the bathroom, but now she had to face the bedroom, anyway. Sandy would get suspicious. Kirsten thought to herself when she opened the bathroom door. She stood in the door and stared at Sandy. She played with her hands ever so nervous. Facing the night she finally went to her bedside. She sat down and tried not to think of what had happened that evening. She lay down and reached for the covers when Sandy woke up.

"Honey, you're home." He stirred up and tried to give her a little kiss on the neck, but Kirsten turned away.

"Yeah, apparently." She turned to the windows and closed her eyes. Don't even think of touching me. She hoped that Sandy wouldn't want more than to kiss her. Sandy however wondered about Kirsten. Why was she rejecting him? Had he done something wrong? He knew that he wouldn't get it out of her tonight so he decided to leave the topic for the next morning.

In the kitchen. Sandy was making breakfast. Today he was making pancakes for Kirsten instead of only bagels. He wanted Kirsten to surprise with it, as an apology for what he had done. Even if he didn't know, what that was. A second later Ryan and Seth were coming in when he heard the bedroom door closing.

"Hey, boys." He greeted them smiling. "I'd like you to hurry up today. I want some time alone with your mother. She'd been very busy lately and I owe her an apology. So please leave the house as soon as possible before she pulls a Menendez and kills us all." He joked around and pointed at the bagels on the table.

Then Kirsten entered the kitchen. Ryan recognized her looks at him and he smiled to give her confidence. To let her think that he didn't recognize her startling when they had touched last night. Ryan gave Seth a punch to get him out of his dreams.

"Hey, dude, we gotta go. School, remember?" He wanted Seth to go and fortunately Seth reacted without mocking or joking. Kirsten smiled t Ryan thankfully for not mentioning the last night. But I can't tell Sandy. She had figured this out last night when she had laid awake in her bed, too scared to sleep.

"So, honey. What do you think about breakfast? I made pancakes." Sandy turned around with the pan in his hand, smiling at his beautiful wife.

"Great. Really great." Kirsten pretended that nothing had happened, but Sandy felt that something was different. She seemed self-contained and somehow away from everything.

"Perfect. Then sit down, I'll serve you." He took the pancakes and led his wife to the table.

After the breakfast Sandy turned to Kirsten.

"Honey, what is wrong with you? And what was wrong with you last night?" Sandy was concerned about Kirsten and wanted to know what had happened. He tried to be gentle but direct with his questions. Kirsten turned away. Searching for excuses she sighed deeply.

"It's – it's nothing. I'm just – I don't know, exhausted, I think. And last night I was just tired. I had a long day. I'm sorry, if I hurt you." She finally found the right words to keep sandy calm.

"Well, if it's just this, you should maybe take a day off and stay at home. What about some quality time?" sandy suggested to Kirsten. Please don't. Kirsten thought when Sandy leaned towards her. He pulled away the hair that hung in her face and started kissing her. Kirsten shivered but rejecting him would have made him suspicious. Then he began kissing her neck and Kirsten couldn't stand the pain any longer.

"Stop it, Sandy! I'm not in the mood! Please stop it!" Kirsten yelled at Sandy and ran away with tears in her eyes.