The children safely strapped into their seats in the back and already drifting in and out of sleep, he begins the long drive home from the party, convincing himself that the arrangement makes sense, that even though his wife drove the kids there in the van and he met them in the car after work, that he should be the one driving the kids home in the van and she should be the one coming home later in the car, how much later he is not exactly sure they agreed on now that he thinks back over the conversation. On the other hand she did have the kids all day, and did get them to the party, and the kids are sleepy, and all the other couples with kids left half an hour ago, in fact all the men left half an hour ago, and these are her old friends more than his, and here he uses the word "friends" very carefully at least subconsciously because if he used a different more appropriate word he might be picturing his wife already naked in the shallow end of the pool the second he turned out of the driveway, naked with the hosts and the other guests, with all her old friends, walking through the water completely turned on, rubbing up against each other, breasts to breasts and hands all over, fleeting and then sometimes longer kisses trailing off into the next person and the next and the next, might picture such a scene with complete accuracy and be disturbed beyond all telling.