Their secret opinion of one another didn't preclude them from being mutually polite. Each tolerated the other's non-conjugal company. They talked. They alternated discussing what was happening in their lives while the other nodded, injecting a polite one word answer occasionally, just to properly pretend interest. Each took turns at this unconscious game and probably thought he or she communicated with the other. In reality, neither ever gave a flip about the other's life or career. Once in a while they did things together socially, usually to fulfill mandated coupling at necessary functions and seldom for the entertainment of either. When Ethel did the inviting, the function was nearly always out of town. She would make Dean promise not to divulge his occupation, giving some weak excuse neither believed. While mildly annoyed, he went along. "Wind me up and take me anywhere," he'd say, much to her irritation.
Ethel was not attractive in spite of spending more money in the beauty salon and boutique than Dean's entire salary. Her hawk-shaped nose, most pronounced in profile, must have led to numerous grade school nicknames. Once, in a rare instance of candor, she'd admitted to Dean she considered a nose job but rejected the idea on the basis that either people would think her vain, or it would so alter her appearance as to make her unrecognizable. But in spite of her lack of beauty, Ethel Rosewater was hell on wheels in bed.
Dean did not know Ethel's age and she wouldn't have told him if he had been interested enough to ask. He assumed she was somewhat older than he, but her body parts were firm and functional and he cared little about the model year of the equipment.
Ethel was an attorney who specialized in making money, so she never crossed paths with Dean's area of the law. She was particularly adept at suing anyone in the same county as an injured victim, but only after carefully deciding they either had a bankroll or sufficient insurance limits to justify her attention.
Rosewater and Atherton, Attorneys-at-Law, was a partnership of Ethel Rosewater and Arthur Atherton, a pompous bastard that Dean had busted for soliciting a plainclothesman outside a gay bar. Atherton had managed to beat the rap, avoiding embarrassing notoriety, but he had despised David Dean from that day forward.
"Bobby Witherspoon mentioned Arthur's name today," Dean commented during a pause in their activities. "Hear-tell he's one of the local lawyers defending some of the Philadelphia family's bad boys. Has he been expanding his clientele?"
"Arthur's always a little short of cash. He grabs 'em where he can find 'em," she answered as she began to coo and squirm.