Ally Hughes Has Sex Sometimes by Jules Moulin Page A

and pictured her mother there, sitting at the table, ever so erect, ever so tall, but shrinking in girth as the chemo ate her away.
    â€œHe’s
eager,
” Claire had said with a smirk, of Ted. “About you.” She raised her brows, thinned but still arched, and sat still in the way she sat still toward the end, as if moving even an inch might cause pain. She wore that pale pink, thinning robe, with the white scalloped edge. “He never married?”
    â€œNo,” Ally said, holding the kettle under the faucet.
    â€œWhat’s his
problem
?”
    Ally smiled. “What’s mine? I’m over forty and I’m not married.”
    â€œYou were
abandoned
,” Claire said mercilessly, as a matter of fact. “On purpose.” She reached for her Parliaments. “I was abandoned
by accident.
It wasn’t
me.
Accidents happen. Old people drive. Daddy died. But Pierre left you
on purpose.
That’s yours. Your problem. What’s Ted’s?”
    Ally thought better than to respond. Not right away. She placed the kettle on top of the burner and turned on the gas that lit the flame. “Just because he’s not married, that doesn’t mean he has a problem.”
    Claire’s eyes shifted. “Yes, it does.”
    Ally was choosing her arguments carefully, trying to avoid them if she could.
    â€œAnyway, he’s
courting
you.”
    â€œMaybe he is.”
    â€œHe is. He asked me”—Claire turned her head toward the stove—“if I thought you would.”
    â€œWhat? Would what?”
    â€œGet married.”
    â€œHe did?” Ally said and opened a cabinet. She took out a tea tin. “Ted did? When?”
    â€œLast week. While you were out getting the Popsicles. Lime. When we ran out of lime.”
    â€”
    In Ally’s bedroom, Jake’s old T-shirt hung on the hamper.
    Mortified, she picked it up, dashed to the closet, and threw it inside, deep in the back. She had called Anna. “Do you think it’s weird that I won’t sleep with Ted?”
    â€œHow was dinner?”
    â€œWait. First. Do you think it’s weird?”
    â€œNo,” Anna said in a soft voice, trying not to wake her husband.
    Ally walked into the bathroom. “Because—because I had a colleague. This adjunct at Brown. She had sex with the pizza guy. Every time she called Domino’s.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œ
And
she had sex with her oil-change guy.
And
her dentist. In his office. He closed the door and they did it on the chair. It reclined.”
    â€œAlly?”
    â€œYes?”
    â€œIt’s not
weird
to want to be
in love
before you have sex. Everyone’s different. You need love and intimacy. Some women don’t. It’s not a
crime.
Now, how was
dinner
?”
    Ally started to take off her clothes. “Have you ever heard of Noah Bean?”
    â€œYou’re killing me here.”
    â€œHave you?” she said and peeled off her shorts.
    â€œThe actor?” said Anna.
    â€œYou
have
?” Ally said and gazed at her legs. She looked at them in the mirror too.
    â€œWhy?”
    She took off her underwear. “Well,” she said. “That’s him. That’s the boy with the perfect penis.”
    Anna paused. “What are you saying? I’m confused.”
    â€œAre you awake?” She piled her clothes on top of the toilet. “Did I wake you up?”
    â€œWe went to bed early.”
    â€œOh, I’m sorry.”
    â€œAlly? What about Noah Bean?”
    â€œThat’s the guy. He changed his name.”
    â€œWait, I don’t get it,” Anna whispered, sounding panicked, growing more alert by the second.
    â€œYou’re asleep. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
    â€œNo! Stay! Are you—saying . . . Are you saying that . . .
you
slept with Noah Bean?”
    â€œHe wasn’t Noah Bean back then. But yes, I did.”
    Anna then screamed.
    Ally held the