MÉTODOS DE PREDICCIÓN MULTIVARIANTE: MODELOS VAR

Sarah woke feeling rested and warm and cozy, wrapped in a goose-down comforter that smelled like lavender and jasmine. She reached beneath her pillow and took out her digital recorder. It had recorded nothing but hours and hours of snoring and the sound of rustling pillows and sheets. Sarah sighed, relieved. She stretched, reaching up toward the padded headboard and flexing her toes, smiling, feeling wonderful. She leaned over and kissed Josh on the lips. His breath reeked of alcohol but Sarah didn’t mind. She slid her tongue between his lips and kissed him deeply, teasing and tickling his lips and tongue with the tip of hers, then sucking on his tongue and twirling her tongue around it like she were giving him head. She knew she was a fabulous kisser and sure enough he responded.

She could see the outline of his erection through the sheets. She reached down and stroked it a little as his eyes fluttered open.

“Good morning, lover.”

“Well, you’re in a good mood.”

“Let’s order room service.”

Josh nodded toward the tent that was rising in the sheets.

“Do you want to play first?”

Sarah couldn’t remember the last time Josh had initiated sex. It figures that he would choose this time to do it. She was still feeling weird about sex, still feeling somehow violated. She didn’t think she was ready to open herself up to anyone right now, not even her husband. She wasn’t ready to feel anyone inside of her.

“I’m sorry. I’m just not ready yet.”

Josh visibly deflated, even down to the root of him where he had been swollen and throbbing just moments before. He looked disappointed. I guess it took her denying him sex before he showed any interest in it. Though, truth be told, she had never before given him an opportunity to miss it. He never had to ask for it because she was usually all over him before he had the chance to.

Maybe a little break would be good for both of us, she thought.

“That’s okay. When you’re ready.”

“How about we spend the day riding roller coasters and shopping and acting like tourists? We haven’t done that since we moved here. We could even hit the buffet or go to one of those new four-star restaurants with the superstar chefs?”

“Now, that sounds excellent.”

“Have you ever had caviar?”

Josh wrinkled up his nose and shook his head.

“Well, we’re going to have to educate that palate of yours.”

“I thought you did that on our first date?” Josh joked.

“Second date. And I don’t recall you needing much instruction. You were already quite the cunnilingus connoisseur if I remember correctly.”

Josh turned and looked deeply into Sarah’s eyes. Sarah could feel her body melt under the heat of his gaze. She could feel all of his love and desire boiling from his eyes.

It had been far too long since he’d looked at her that way.

“Actually, you were the first and only woman I’d ever done that to.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Wow. I’m flattered. What made me so special?”

Josh shrugged. “You did me first.”

“Don’t tell me that I was the first woman who ever gave you a blow job?”

Sarah saw Josh’s eyes gloss over and she knew she had gone too far.

“Yeah, you were the first woman.”

The air between them suddenly went flat and stale. Silence fell like a curtain.

Once again Sarah felt like she needed to do something to comfort him even in the middle of her own crisis.

“Ever ride the Big Shot?”

Josh’s eyes refocused and he looked at her as if she were speaking a foreign language.

“The what?”

“The Big Shot. At the top of the Stratosphere?”

A smile spread across his face. A love of thrill rides was one of their mutual vices.

“Are you serious?”

“Oh yeah. Are you game?”

“Hell yeah! But first, let’s order that breakfast.”

Sarah grabbed the room service menu as Josh reached for the phone.

“Oooooh! They have bagels with lox and cream cheese. And they have French toast!”

“I just want steak and eggs.”

“Okay, go ahead and order it. I’m going to take a shower.”

Sarah climbed out of the bed. She saw Josh look at her as she scrambled up from beneath the sheets and then saw the look of disappointment when he noticed that she was wearing pajamas, long flannel pajamas. She had never worn pajamas in their entire marriage. She had complained and protested vehemently when Josh had worn them, calling them his armor, an attempt to put a barrier between them. She’d even gone so far as to cut holes in all of his pajamas forcing him to go to bed nude, the way she preferred him. Now, she was the one wearing armor.

Just feeling Josh’s disappointment again, twice in the space of two minutes, was overwhelming. Still, she walked into the bathroom and closed the door before she disrobed.

The shower had twin heads that shot two forceful sprays of water. Sarah had the temperature turned up as hot as she could stand it and the two powerful multijet sprayers felt like a deep tissue massage, blasting away the last vestiges of tension and stress from her muscles. This was all she had needed, a good night’s sleep and a hot shower to scrub the filth and sweat from her dreams off her skin. Her complexion was turning red as the scalding water scoured her pale flesh. It felt as if her soul were being cleansed and purged. Unexpectedly, she began to cry.

Her body hitched and jerked as the tears burst up from deep within her as if she had tapped some deep underground reservoir of sorrow. Everything had been so perfect.

Her life had been flawless. Her biggest complaint until less than a week ago had been

boredom. Now she was either being raped, probably drugged, and possibly murdered every night and somehow resurrected each morning or she was crazy or some combination of the two. Somehow, in the span of a few days, her perfect, flawless life had turned into a nightmare, literally.

The tears continued to come with increasing force and for once she made no attempt to rein them in. She allowed them to come unrestrained, emptying her soul, and letting the water from the shower wash them away. She had cried more this week than she could ever remember crying in her adult life. But this time, it felt good.

When she finally stepped from the shower, all the tears were gone. She had expected to feel exhausted after crying so hard and long but instead, she felt refreshed.

She looked in the mirror at her eyes. They looked puffy and swollen. She opened up her cosmetic case and withdrew some eye shadow and cover-up. By the time she stepped out of the bathroom her face held no evidence of her crying jag even though she was certain Josh had heard her.

This time she didn’t bother to cover herself when she stepped naked into the bedroom. The quick intake of Josh’s breath made her smile and almost brought the tears back. She still took his breath away. He still found her beautiful and desirable. But the last thing she wanted, the last thing she would have been able to stand, would have been for him to touch her. She turned away from him and began getting dressed.

Someone knocked on the door and Sarah reached for her purse even as she heard the man on the other side call out, “Room service.”

Sarah looked at Josh who stood up and walked to the door. Not a single part of him was worried that it might be Dale on the other side with a knife, ready to plunge it into his chest and then rape and murder her, and that let her know loudly and clearly that he didn’t believe her at all. He had already made up his mind that it was all in her head.

Sarah kept her hand on the gun in her purse and tried her best not to feel resentful.

It was the same waiter from the night before. He smiled politely and then looked down at her hand, which had slipped inside her purse and was clutching the Sig Sauer.

Her finger was a fraction of an inch from the trigger. The butt of the gun had been sticking out of the purse and she slid it back in when she saw him looking. He looked up at her eyes and then managed a weak smile. Josh followed the waiter’s eyes down to her purse and then he let out a sigh, scribbling a tip and a signature on the receipt and ushering the waiter out the door. Sarah could tell that Josh wanted to say something about the gun but with it still clutched in her hand he obviously thought better of it. Sarah let go of the Sig Sauer and joined Josh by the bed. The silence was back and it coated them like a blanket all through breakfast. Sarah didn’t mind it though. The food was too good for her to even think about having a conversation unless it was about what she was putting into her mouth at that moment.

The French toast was fluffy and covered in powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, butter, syrup, and whipped cream. Truly decadent. Sarah began shoveling the toast into her mouth like she were a fat kid at a pie-eating contest. Like it or not, she was going to have to hit the treadmill tonight after Josh left to start his shift. It was either that or get curves in places she didn’t want them.

The bagels were covered in cream cheese that had been whipped until it was as light as Cool Whip. They were piled with smoked salmon, slices of beefsteak tomatoes,

red onions, and capers. Sarah showed them no more mercy than she had shown the French toast.

She looked over at Josh who was patiently cutting his steak into little cubes and dipping each individual piece in A1 sauce before putting it in his mouth. He’d eaten his eggs and hash browns first, everything in order, and had just begun on his steak.

Sometimes she even had a bigger appetite than he did and she had to remind herself of the number of calories she burned doing cardio to keep from feeling like an absolute cow.

Making love to her was about all the cardio Josh ever got. Still, she was going to have to start cutting back. Her metabolism was bound to slow down and when it did she’d be 300 pounds if she continued to eat like this. But that was something she would hopefully not have to worry about for a long time and in the meantime there was so much good food to eat in Vegas. She was happiest of all that Las Vegas had given up on trying to be a family destination and had begun going after the highend crowd with fancy restaurants and designer boutiques. Today, she intended to sample her fair share of both. She had already decided on Spago for lunch at Caesars and then dinner at Fleur de Lis at the Mandalay Bay where she was going to force Josh to try caviar for the first time. After that, they’d go to Joël Robuchon at the MGM Grand for dessert. It was a good thing she’d won all that money playing the slot machines. If she had it her way, she was going to need it.

Sarah finished eating, then slipped into a pair of jeans and a baby T-shirt as she waited for Josh to finish eating his steak.

“Hurry up. I want to hit every roller coaster on the strip before lunchtime.”