Cassie was panicking when I got home, Monday evening. “Don’t be mad,” my wife said. She looked like she was close to tears.
My instincts immediately shifted from prey to protector. Inwardly I braced myself for the worst. I dug my fingers into my slacks and held my breath for Cassie to break whatever bad news she had to me. “Okay. Talk to me.”
“The washing machine broke,” her voice was trembling. “And I can’t get even a Tweener mechanic to come and fix it till Thursday. I’msosorry!”
Broken washing machine? That was it?! I immediately relaxed. “Alright…” I said cautiously. Cassie had never been the type of person to hit me with a bad news/worse news combo. The washing machine was the biggest problem Cassie had to tell me about.
My wife was shaking. “I know how you like to have all your work clothes nice and neat and we’ve still got laundry piled up and I don’t want you to get in trouble! I’m so sorry!” I was the hug giver now. I squeezed her and rubbed her back until she stopped trembling so much.
Emotionally speaking, this was more precarious than it might at first seem. Inwardly, I wanted to laugh and wave it off as no big deal. But nobody wanted to be told that their feelings didn’t matter. And with Cassie’s temper…
I let Cassie out of the hug and held her hand. “Alright,” I said. “That kind of sucks. Gonna be expensive to get it repaired. Probably more expensive for a Tweener to do it because I’m going to want to bribe whoever just in case the neighbors still don’t know we live here.”
Cassie nodded, avoiding eye contact like a scolded puppy.
“We’ve got enough money though,” I said. “It just means we’re going to have to hold off on any other major expenses for a couple of months. Eat out less.”
Cassie nodded. “So you’re not mad?”
I shrugged and gave a little smile. “Shit like this happens. It’s just part of being an adult, y’know?”
“Yeah. I know,” she said. “And it’s silly. It’s just that things have been getting to me a lot lately. I think I’m just starting to lose it. I feel like one false step and we’ll end up dolled and mind-fucked.”
Welcome to my life, Cassie. “A broken washing machine isn’t one of those things. I’ve got enough clothes to get me through the week.”
“Fair.”