Chapter One
He sleeps deeply, turned on his side with an arm draped across her shoulders.
His slow exhaling crescendos to a jagged mixture of snorts and labored breaths.
Norma wishes she could sleep as comfortably. She feels the weight of his elbow
on her back and eases out from under his grasp.
She raises herself and sits close to the edge of the bed, which they never
bothered to unmake, and examines her state of disarray. Her bra dangles from her
shoulder, held by one intact strap. Her right breast, the one his mouth latched
onto first, is exposed. She smiles at the memory and closes her eyes, trying to
experience it all again. When she stands, a smoldering ache below her waist
makes her wince.
In the bathroom, she adjusts her bra, lifting her heavy breasts up from where
breastfeeding dropped them. She crosses her arms beneath, as she examines her
body in the baroque mirror. She's gained weight this past year but doesn't
harbor guilt about dropping the t'ai chi class or being a stranger at the
fitness center she joined with lofty intentions. Her stomach is actually the
only part of her form she is displeased with. The flesh immediately above and
below her navel is creased and wrinkled like a huge prune, the reward of two
C-sec ... read full excerpt from Breathing Room ebook
