BITCH!

Annie Gunn and Tony Gray were in the middle of a comfortable relationship. Good sex and low expectations were the key ingredients.

"I like you, Tony, because you don't humiliate me," she told him as they sat in a booth at the Vermillion. "You don't tell me the negative things I've heard all my life. If you ever call me a bad name, I would walk out on you in a second."

Tony didn't care if he saw Annie again, but he had become more at ease with her because she never challenged him and she gave great massages after they had sex. Her glowing critique of his character, however, disturbed him. He wasn't a bad person, but he could be an asshole and he didn't want Annie fooling herself with this false image of him.

"You don't remember when I insulted you?" he asked.

"No," she answered.

"I called you a bitch," he said.

"When?"

"One night when we were fucking."

"When we were fucking!" she laughed. "That's different."

On Tony's top ten list, Annie had moved into the fifth spot in the corral.