A Virtuous Woman

Slender and with the narrow hips of a runway model, Susan’s striking looks had intimidated boys since her early teens. Only the boldest would ask her out. She’d smacked more than one in the face for trying something, and she gave no second chances. A year out of high school, Josh had been different, treating her like a gentleman. He drove her to downtown Asheville for a memorable first date in his new F150 – dinner at the city’s celebrated Spanish restaurant and great seats for an Elle King concert at a theater across the street. During the year-long courtship, she mistook his timidity for respect, their physical contact limited to holding hands and chaste kisses. She married him, still proud of her reputation as a virgin.

Her first major disappointment came when she learned that Josh’s friends had goaded him into initially approaching her with taunts of chicken. His father bankrolled Josh’s business of buying, repairing, and selling used farm equipment. When she saw how badly he ran the company and his incompetence as a salesman, she began taking birth control pills. Neither Josh nor Susan ever drew a salary, and after two years the company folded, every penny lost. Then his father died of a heart attack, and Josh inherited his father’s fortune and sprawling estate outside of Burnsville. Even after his mourning for his father ended, his moping and low energy showed that the sting of his failure persisted. So did her avoidance of pregnancy.

In her mid-twenties now and more confident than when they’d wed, she had friends out of his circle, a life separate from his. He’d become so convinced of her cheating that several months earlier he’d hired a detective to track her for a week, apologizing later and oblivious that he’d ripped out the heart of their relationship.