6 -TIT FOR TAT “1990 SANDY THOMAS

of her satin high heels. Ivory pearls and lace clung to the tight bodice in contrast to her delicately rose tinted cheeks, she was breath taking. Victor whispered, "I hope she's not TOO much woman for you." I didn't have long to wait.

Up until the "I do's”, she'd been wonderfully attentive and loyal to me. Oh sure, I got to kiss the bride. When I turned around a little twinge of jealousy jabbed at me. There was a line of every man in the church waiting to kiss her. Oh, a kiss was one thing but Tana seemed to linger longer with some. A couple of her old football player boyfriends gave her deeper kisses than I had. She even disappeared with a college medical student who she'd gone steady with during her junior year.

Later, referring to the vast numbers of old boyfriends and their friendliness, I said, "I don't like that sort of thing." She looked at me funny, then said, "What's the matter with you? It's tradition for all the old boyfriends to get their last 'shot' at the bride."

That night in our honeymoon suite Tana undressed for bed. We'd not slept together. She said, "I wanted to save myself for our wedding night. She removed her dress and loosened her bra so that her breasts came into view. They were round and fuller than I'd even imagined. The crimson tips stiffened into hard points of desire. Even then, I didn't realize I was in trouble.

Thus began our "story book" romance, supposedly to live happily ever after. Well, that isn't what happened.

HAPPY DAYS?

On our wedding night, I learned quickly that I was unquestionably more of a "virgin" than Tana. She was uninhibited and had ideas that I hadn't even heard of and might have even been illegal in some Southern states.

There were other annoyances in the relationship. There were the clothes she wore. Even the most conservative dress, when worn by Tana was sexy. I tried to get her to become more conservative in her dress but to no avail. She'd say, "I look good in glamorous clothes and I'm going to wear them. I thought you were a man who liked me to look sexy. You did before we were married."

"Yeah, but not on my wife,” I said realizing how stupid that sounded.

TV FICTION CLASSICS -7

We fought a lot that first year. Mostly about her clothes and her old boyfriends that kept calling. She'd say, "We're just friends now."

On the outside, everyone thought we were a "cute" couple. Her father said at our wedding, "You two look like Donnie and Marie."

Tana laughed and said, "I don't think I look anything like Donnie." We were the same size and both had Scandinavian, naturally blonde hair. Her's bleached a lighter shade. We almost looked like twins or brother and sister. She always wore 3 or 4 inch heels that made her taller than

me.

Maybe I was jealous because she got so much attention. from men and she appeared to love it, too. I'd catch her smiling back at some handsome man looking at her. There was only one way to handle a wife like her. POWER. I'd force her to wear less makeup and wear more subdued clothes. That was it.

I guess I was beginning to be a heartless husband. A jerk, with a capital "J". I never wanted to take her out and I yelled at her all the time. I hated myself, but I was threatened and she refused to do anything about it.

She'd still use that seductive smile, almond shaped blue eyes and rounded shape to make every man within a ten block radius go mad.

You are probably saying to your self, DUMP her and move on, RIGHT? The problem was that I loved her. The first months of our relationship, (before we were married) were the best times of my life. I wasn't jealous then. We were best friends. What went wrong?

One night after a bad fight about the 'shortness' of her skirts, she was in tears. She sobbed, "I love you and I can't help it that men are attracted to me. Its nature. It's you I love and I wish I could make you understand what I'm talking about." She went to bed in tears.

But the next day on the answering machine was a call from some old boyfriend of her's. I screamed, jealously "What now? Doesn't he know we're married?"

Oh, she had justification, she always did. "He's just a friend of mine and wanted to tell me about the new girl he's dating." I blew it, as usual. I was becoming 'wimpy' even