A Regular Bastard
by Antonios Maltezos

She didn’t like the feel of the cold vinyl seat on her skin. If only he’d turn the car around, she’d gladly put on the baggy dress that made her look like a giant spud. She hadn’t planned on wearing the red dress. She’d tried it on just for him -- just for the fun of it. She wanted to tell him, but her voice, the words, kept catching in her throat. He shouldn’t have yelled.

She looked down on her thighs as every street light they passed flashed its milky-blue into the speeding car. She wanted him to look her way, see the legs, rest his heavy hand on her thigh, and then turn the car around. Just a flash – that’s all she’d intended, for her own husband in their own home.

They found parking and she was horrified by the number of cars that seemed clustered, drawn to one house. She had been looking forward to the gathering, seeing his family again for the first time since they’d been married.

“You’ll embarrass me dressed like that,” he’d yelled, shocked, as if he’d been stung. He could’ve patted her behind instead, told her that the red dress made her look really hot. She’d have taken it off, playfully, and then slipped into something more decent -- the baggy dress.

He killed the engine, snapped up the keys into his fist, and then slipped them into a deep pocket before she could say anything. She tried sitting still even as the car rocked on its suspension – even as he slammed the door and crossed her view.

“You coming out?”

If he could just give her a chance to back out gracefully, she thought. I’m sorry about the yelling, would do. She’d say okay, now get back in the car. She could explain about the red dress at home while she changed -- while he stood there watching just to make sure.

“Well, are you coming -- or not?”

There was something about his brutish face, his mad eyes. The voice, muffled by the glass, seemed to come from far away.

She spoke clearly, enunciating every word so she wouldn’t have to roll down the window. “I want to go home. I want to change.”

Without warning, he opened her door, chilling her legs in an instant, cutting short her breath for the very first time.

______

Antonios Maltezos has been recently published in Verbsap, Night Train, Slingshot Magazine, The Shore, Pindeldyboz, and NFG. He has other work forthcoming in Ink Pot, Thieves Jargon, and Ghoti.