Marked for Life by Emelie Schepp Page A

into a puddle. He felt how the cold water was sucked up by the sock in his right shoe. Oh great! Really great!
    He looked up at the house again. Still saw no sign of life. He wanted most of all to give up and go off to the nearest lunch place and just get some grub. But then he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Something that moved. He screwed his eyes up a little in an effort to see what it was. A security camera! He pressed the intercom, shouted a few times to elicit an answer and managed in his enthusiasm to suppress the sensation of dizziness that gradually crept up on him.
    * * *
    Forty minutes and ninety-eight kronor later, Henrik Levin had eaten his fill. The Thai buffet had consisted of far too many tasty dishes. Mia Bolander had accompanied him, but chosen something lighter, a salad.
    Henrik regretted his choice of lunch when he got back in the car again. He felt heavy and drowsy and let Mia drive to the police station.
    â€œNext time can you remind me that I must have salad too,” he said.
    Mia laughed.
    â€œPlease?”
    â€œI’m not your bloody mother! But all right, then. Does Emma want you to lose weight or what?”
    â€œDo you think I’m fat, then?”
    â€œNot your face.”
    â€œThanks.”
    â€œShe won’t let you fuck her, is that it?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI mean, you seem to want to go easy on the carbs, which means you want to lose weight. I read online that the biggest motivation for men to lose weight is that they want to have more sex.”
    â€œI was just talking about a salad. I just want to eat salad next time. What’s wrong with that?”
    â€œNothing.”
    â€œDo you think I’m fat?”
    â€œNo. You’re not fat. You only weigh eighty kilos, Henrik.”
    â€œEighty-three.”
    â€œSorry, eighty-bloody-three kilos, then. You’re a pudding, right! Why would you want to weigh any less?”
    Mia winked provocatively.
    Henrik remained silent and kept his real reason for wanting to eat lighter to himself.
    Mia didn’t need to know that seven weeks earlier he had embarked on a low-carb diet. He was also aiming to get more exercise on weekdays. But it was hard to keep to his new lifestyle choices, especially when Thai food tastes so much better with rice. After work it was simpler: home, eat, play, bath time, tuck into bed, TV, sleep. His time with his five-and six-year-old kids when he got home was pretty much routine. Admittedly, he hadn’t actually asked his wife, Emma, if he could spend an hour, once or twice a week, at the gym. Hopefully she would say yes. But deep inside Henrik was afraid of what answer he would get. A firm no .
    His wife already resented his spending too little time with the family.
    But he felt that if he were in better shape, they would have better and more frequent sex. To him it was a win-win situation.
    But those few times he had asked Emma for permission just to play football with the local club on a Saturday, he was turned down. The weekends were for the family, she said, and they should be out in the garden, visiting the zoo park, going to the cinema or just spending family time together. She felt she and Henrik needed to nurture their relationship by spending more time cuddling together.
    Henrik didn’t particularly like cuddling. He liked having sex. To him, sex was the greatest proof that you loved your partner, he thought. It didn’t matter when or where you did it. Just that you did it. That wasn’t what Emma thought. For her, it had to be pleasurable and relaxing, and you needed lots of time and the right setting. Their bed still remained her preference and then only when the children weren’t awake. Since Felix, who was afraid of ghosts, insisted on going to sleep every night between them in bed, their opportunities for sex were few.
    Henrik had to settle for the hope that things would get better. This past month he had felt more desire. And Emma