This a short part, where the disciplinary aspects of their female led relationship now become unambiguous.
It was late in the summer when a somewhat new dynamic opened up in Gwen and Henry's relationship. On a Tuesday morning, as she was leaving for work, Gwen told Henry that when he did the laundry today, he was to separate out her good blue silk blouse and run it on a gentle cycle, by itself, and hang dry it. Henry, not naked but dressed in painting clothes that day, told her that he would.
That was in the morning. And had Henry started the laundry right then, as he was normally wont to do, things might have been fine. But he was in a hurry to get to his painting work. He had a week left before he had to start preparing lesson plans and report to work in anticipation of the new school year--and he still had two rooms to paint. He would make it, but not with any time to spare. The laundry slipped his mind.
When he stopped for lunch, he went to the laundry room to wash up and noticed the pile.
Oops, he thought, forgot to do that. Better get to it.
He quickly loaded the machine, closed the lid and went to eat. In his hurry, he forgot about the blue blouse. He did not think about the laundry again until Gwen got home.
He was cleaning up the day's work when she popped in to see him. She could already tell dinner wasn't made. Normally, that was against the rules she had laid down, but she recognized Henry was doing a lot of work, so it was fine if he made the meal now that he was clearly cleaning up. But she did ask about her blouse.
"Did you wash my blouse and not hang it up yet? I didn't see it in the laundry room."
Henry's face immediately betrayed a look of panic.
"Uh-oh."
Gwen's face darkened a bit. "What? Did you forget to wash it?"
"Uh, no, that's not it. I did forget to run it separately on a gentle cycle. I accidentally tossed it in with the rest of the laundry." His face wincing as he said that.
Gwen said nothing, turned and went back to the laundry room to find her blouse, still wet in the machine, with the rest of the laundry. The abrasion with the rest of the laundry, which had included some jeans, had ruined it, at least for professional purposes. Now Gwen was angry and at that moment Henry appeared there to see his failure of the day.
She simply, but quietly said, "it's ruined."
"I'm so sorry. I forgot to start it this morning and then when I remembered at lunch time, I forgot you wanted me to separate that out. I'm truly sorry."
Gwen said nothing at first. But finally, she said, "just go get dinner ready. That's something you also didn't do today that was supposed to be done by the time I got home."
The rebuke stung, because he had been working all day, but that didn't make her rebuke any less valid.