Without him noticing, Emily watched her boyfriend having the time of his life playing his beloved car game on his even more beloved X-Box and she sighed heavily. She may as well have been a floorboard for the past three hours; Diego hadn't so much as looked at her. She twisted the hem of her dress between her fingertips and fought back tears. All week they had been planning for tonight. A mutual friend of theirs was having a dinner party which they were going to attend, get royally drunk on free booze, and then return home to screw each other's brains out. Diego had promised that nothing would get in the way this time. She felt stupid for actually having believed that tonight would be any different than last Friday or the ten Fridays before that. She locked her eye on Stanley, Diego's best friend and eternal virgin. Tonight his appearance was even grubbier and lazier than usual. The boy was a disaster and the worst possible friend for Diego.

Emily checked the clock on her computer for the last time and then slammed her laptop closed. She stood up from the dining table and glared across at the room at her boyfriend who was still completely unaware that the dinner had started forty minutes ago. Emily had reminded him twice, and then decided to give up on prompting him, as a way of testing for sure whether or not he really was completely useless.

"Diego," she stood at the kitchen counter, out of sight, pouring herself a gin and tonic. She made one for Diego as well in the hope that it might make him a bit more exciting. "Can you come in here for a moment?"

"Yeah hang on a sec, babe. We've almost finished this round," he called back. Emily happened to know that no matter how far away the game was from ending, they had always "nearly finished this round."

Eventually Diego walked into the kitchen, still with the controller in his hand and Stanley on his heels. Emily glared at Stanley, but he didn't catch the hint. Fuck it, she thought, we'll have this conversation in front of your friend.

"Don't you remember what we had planned to do tonight, Diego?" She asked, with the straw in her mouth to prevent her voice from giving away the fact that she was almost crying.

"Yeah, course babe. We're going to the dinner."

"No, we aren't. The reservation was for forty minutes ago. We're too late."

Diego flicked his wrist to check his watch and frowned.

"Why didn't you say something earlier?"

"I did! And then I became sick of reminding you so I wanted to see what would happen if I left it up to you. And now I know. You never wanted to go, did you?"

"Yeah, I did," Diego said defensively. It was a blatant lie and it was obvious that Diego was aware that Emily knew it.

"You didn't even want to come home and spend the evening with me either, did you?" Emily accused, with a sidelong glance at Stanley. Finally he picked up on the hint.

"Ah, I guess I'll get going," Stanley said quickly and scurried toward the door. He gave Diego a brief half-wave, ignoring Emily.

"What's wrong with you?" Diego hissed once his friend was gone. "What do you have against Stanley?"

"This is not about Stanley!" Emily erupted. "What's wrong with me, you ask? I should be asking you that. What is wrong with me, Diego? Why don't you want to do anything with me?"

Emily could hear the nagging in her own voice and she hated it, but there were things that needed to be said.

"I'm sorry I missed the time of the dinner party," Diego said after taking a moment to pick his words carefully. "That game is not more important than you, it's just that Stanley and I were in the middle of a good play."

"You're twenty-five years old, for god's sake," Emily closed her eyes and massaged her temples. When they were seventeen, the games were fine. They didn't live together then and if she didn't' want to put up with it, she would go home. Now they were supposed to be having a serious relationship and living with an oversized child was really starting to take its toll. However, it wasn't Emily's main concern about their relationship.

"Are we really going to start this? I said I'm sorry," Diego apologized lamely, shrugging his shoulders.

"It's not about the fucking dinner party," Emily snapped, leaving Diego looking extremely confused. "That was just an excuse to get you drunk enough to want to fuck me."

Diego's eyebrows shot upward.

"Why are you saying that?" Diego went to the fridge, as if bored with the conversation. When Emily saw him retrieve a bottle of Coke she pushed the glass of gin toward him.

"Wouldn't this be better?" She suggested, only half-serious now. Diego looked at the glass and then up at Emily.

"You're out of your mind. I don't have to be pissed to have sex with you."

"Then why don't we ever do it?" Emily was annoyed at herself for crying. She wanted to get her point across, not create a scene and end up frustrating Diego.

"You're being ridiculous," he told her, which was infuriating. He said it every time that they argued, making Emily feel as though she had hit a brick wall. He was never going to be able to see things the way that she did. "We did it a couple of weeks ago," Diego pointed out.

"That's not enough, Diego."

Emily was a mess now. She hated to cry in front of Diego. It freaked him out and made him act even worse than usual.

"Come on," Diego stepped toward her with his arms outstretched. "Come here."

Emily stepped into his embrace and whimpered into his shirt, "Tell me what's wrong with me, please. I do everything I can to try to look good for you."

"There isn't anything wrong with you," he assured her. "I just get busy. And tired."

Emily thought of the video games and sighed to herself. They were what made him busy and tired. There was no point bringing it up, it would only worsen the situation.

"Come on then, are we going to this party or not?" Diego asked.

"I told you, it's too late."

This time it was genuine guilt on Diego's face, and that was enough for Emily. They left their flat to fetch a takeaway and rent a DVD, and although it wasn't romantic it hit a soft spot for Emily because it was something they used to do when they first started hanging out together; back when Diego was all over her. They sat side by side on the sofa, Diego with his arm tucked around her waist. He kissed her on the top of her head and apologized once more for missing the party.

"This is nicer, anyway," Emily replied, squeezing his hand. Diego smiled at her and planted another kiss on her lips this time. As Emily stared back at him, she couldn't believe that there could be anything wrong with their sex life. He was so sweet when they were alone, always making sure that she was happy. She gave him all the time he should need to play his silly video games and hang out with his mates, just as he allowed her time to do her own thing. He was sweet-natured and loving and on the surface their relationship appeared to be flawless. Emily stopped to think to herself, fork poised mid-air. Could it be that their relationship really was flawless, and she was in fact asking for too much? How much was too much? Weren't guys supposed to want all the sex they could get?

When they were done eating, Diego was engrossed in the DVD, while Emily was eager to move forward. It was an unspoken thing, the fact that they were planning to have sex after they had finished dinner and the movie was over. Or during it, whatever. Emily didn't see why that part of their original plan should change. Anticipating a much needed romp with her boyfriend, Emily excused herself and went and changed into provocative underwear. It was a set that she had brought a couple of months back in an attempt to turn Diego on, but he hadn't noticed it. Tonight she was giving him one last chance to notice her desperate bid to get him going. She stood in front of the floor-length mirror in their bedroom, not so much admiring herself but more just confirming that she was do-able. Her boobs were her favorite thing, not a big handful but not a small one either. She tanned them as well as the rest of her body by lying topless on the roof of Diego's backyard workshop on sunny days, in the dip where the ventilation was installed so that she was hidden from the neighbors. If the neighbors could see at all, she didn't mind much - but that was her own little secret.

She tightened the straps of the black lacy corset bra as much as possible so that her tits sat high. The matching thong was really nothing but a strip of lace that covered her pussy and her crack but hid nothing at all, due to it being see-through. She sucked in her stomach a little, afraid that although Diego never said anything, maybe he did judge. She didn't consider herself to be overweight in the slightest, but she wasn't as toned as the chicks on the cover of the magazines that he pretended he didn't look at. She twisted in the mirror to peer at her ass. Maybe not so much nowadays, but usually her ass was what Diego paid the most attention to. She intentionally didn't work out that part too much, so that Diego would always have some jelly to grab hold of. She closed her eyes and smiled, filling up with a warm feeling as she reflected back upon the times when Diego used to do her from behind. She was determined to make that happen tonight. Satisfied with her appearance at last, Emily turned away from the mirror and quietly downed half a gin and tonic in the kitchen. She wasn't the one who needed to let herself go, but in order to have the courage to ask for what she wanted, she had to be feeling braver than usual. The thought of sex with Diego was exciting but had also become somewhat awkward since it was not a common occurrence any longer and had become an issue.

"Back," Emily announced as she strutted into the living room, her lingerie covered up with a cream-colored satin robe that hung open. She was relieved to finally see the credits rolling down the TV screen that indicated the end of the movie. She looked at Diego, expecting to see at least some amount of lust in his eyes. She trembled with exhilaration at the thought of perhaps starting their encounter on the sofa. She felt like she had been gutted with a sharp knife when she saw Diego sleeping soundly, having pulled the sofa throw over him and a cushion under his head. Furious, Emily shouted at him.

"You're asleep! Really?"

Diego didn't stir. Some part of Emily believed that he wasn't asleep; he was ignoring her on purpose. What man would do that? All of her determination vanished instantly and she literally ran back into the bedroom and threw herself down on the bed in a heap. She was too mentally exhausted to cry now. Serious thoughts were starting to take hold. They had crossed her mind briefly before, but the fact that they might be true was too much to bear. Was Diego really getting his sex elsewhere? From who? He barely left the house anymore.

Emily carelessly wiped away her make-up, more than disappointed. She tucked herself in to bed, still wearing nothing but the lingerie so that in the morning, Diego would know what he had missed.

At some point in the night, a warm body crawled into bed beside Emily and reached for her, tucking her under his arm. Emily stiffened, trying to decide whether to respond or not.

"Why didn't you wake me up, babe? You went to bed without me," Diego mumbled into her hair as he spooned around her body.

Emily searched for the right answer. She didn't want to have sex with somebody who she had to wake up because he fell asleep while she was getting ready, and she didn't want to tell him to come to bed to sleep when she was mad at him. By the time she thought of something to say, Diego was snoring quietly.

"Fuck you, Diego," she whispered before falling back to sleep.