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It was the third week of September. Emily was back to teaching, but she was still managing special dinners, still keeping up with the Victoria’s Secret nightwear and energetic sex, still being cheerful and loving and attentive. And he could see the strain of it on her face, when she didn’t know he was watching her.
Until he came in the door on a Thursday around 6:30 and ran into a buzz-saw. As he approached her in the kitchen with a “hi, honey” and reached to give her a kiss, she backed away coldly.
“I understand someone’s had a promotion,” she said from between clenched teeth. She looked and sounded like a Marine drill sergeant—a seriously pissed-off one. “Were you ever planning to tell me about it?”
And before Nick could reply she turned away, waving a hand dismissively at him. “No, don’t even say a word. I’m going to get the boys.” And she stormed out into the yard, calling for Charlie and Ben.
All through dinner as they ate and the boys chattered away, Emily leveled murderous glances at him. It was almost funny, and Nick realized that he hadn’t seen his wife angry at him—not once—in something close to two months. He was sort of enjoying it, God knows why.
Emily rejected all of Nick’s help in getting the boys to bed, so he gave up and watched a re-run of “NCIS.” When she came into the living room around 9, he could see she was all set to let him have it. Fine, he thought. Let’s fight—let’s see what that’s like.
“Do you know how embarrassing it was, talking to Suzanne today?” Emily glared at him. She didn’t even sit down, instead standing over him with her arms folded.
“She told me she needed to remind you to bring your passport in so she could arrange for the visas you need for the next few months, all those trips to Japan and Singapore.
“And then she said, ‘oh Emily, you must be so proud of him, with this big promotion and all. Did you guys have a big celebration?’ And I was so stunned, I didn’t know what to say.
“Finally I sort of stammered, ‘uh, yeah, it’s been great,’ or something like that. I felt like a goddamned IDIOT, Nick! And I’m sure Suzanne could tell I had no idea what she was talking about.
“She said you were promoted back in July! And here it is, more than two months later, and you haven’t said Word One to me! Was I supposed to go the rest of my life not knowing I was married to the Vice-President for Far East Sales? Is that none of my business all of a sudden?”
She paced around the room, then sat down in the armchair across from the sofa. Nick hadn’t opened his mouth. She went on for another few minutes in the same vein: she couldn’t believe he’d kept this from her, she’d been so humiliated, etc. She was utterly furious, and it seemed like her anger was letting her discharge some of the tension of the past few weeks.
“I know our marriage is on thin ice—and I know it’s because I screwed up. Believe me, there’s not an hour that goes by when I don’t think about that! But you promised that we’d both give it a try, staying together. And I would have thought that meant talking to each other, sharing the news about minor things like, oh, I don’t know, A HUGE PROMOTION!”