Happy Household

Anne and Claudia catch up over coffee, bitching about sloppy houses until their TV debate turns into a week-long cleaning bet. Anne loses and shows up at Claudia's the next morning already uneasy. Mitch answers too, wearing a smirk that makes her stomach tighten. She scrubs baseboards while they lounge, both of them watching the muscles in her thighs flex. By the third day Mitch lingers in doorways whenever Claudia steps out, brushing past her on purpose, letting his breath graze her neck. Anne hates how wet that makes her. She confesses to Claudia anyway. Claudia just tilts her head, calm and cool, then starts giving Anne the same hungry looks Mitch does. Over wine the next night she says it plainly: clean naked tomorrow. The word lands like a slap that Anne feels low in her belly. She leaves the house trembling, pulse thumping between her legs, brain flipping between flight and surrender, knowing she is already deciding.