The Safe Word

Six years married, and Gemma and Ethan have planned this night on the back of the gas bill: his navy silk tie, her hands above her head, one edge and only one, and a safe word picked over breakfast. Pineapple. Lily is at her grandmother's until Sunday lunch, the candles are lit, and the man who packs the school lunches is about to tell his wife exactly what to do. At the bottom of the list, he wrote one line of his own and turned it face down.