Up to Eleven
by Pan
Three.
Eric didn’t touch the dial the next day. Or the next day, or the next day, or the next day.
He continued to check it every hour or so, but as the days went past, the number never changed.
Two. Two. Two. Two.
Whether she was awake or asleep, whether she was working or at the gym or in the shower, the knob never moved.
Two.
He spent a lot of time watching his wife, trying to see if there were any discernible changes. Was she walking with a little more sway in her hips, or was that just his imagination? When her lips wrapped around the straw of her iced coffee, was there a saucy look in her eyes, or was he just projecting?
Was she a hint more cuddly than normal, or was she always this affectionate?
After a full week had passed, Eric decided he genuinely couldn’t tell.
That, more than anything, was what gave him the courage to do it.
It wasn’t to affect his wife’s libido, he told himself. It wasn’t to turn her on, it was just to…test. To see if he could tell the difference. It was research, that’s what it was. If he could tell the difference between a One and a Three, he wouldn’t have to wait for his wife to make the first move. He’d be able to tell when she was on the upswing, and then he could be ready.
He was just future-proofing their relationship; preparing for a day when the app no longer worked.
That’s all it was.
And so, three days after their spontaneous tryst in his study, Eric did it. He waited until his wife was asleep, opened the app, and—for the first time—deliberately placed his finger on the number, slowly moving it to the right.
Three.
As soon as he’d done it, Eric closed the app. He didn’t want to sneeze and move his wife to a Ten…or worse, discover there was a Zero. Or negative numbers! If raising her number had meant she was incapable of getting back down to a One, he couldn’t even imagine what negative numbers would do.
Glancing over to his wife, he was unsurprised to see that he couldn’t see a difference in her sleeping form. No, he’d have to wait until morning. That’s when the changes—if there were any—would be perceivable.