It was Thursday and the week wore itself on.
Last Friday, his manager said, "We could just move the course online and you could do it from home".
Initially, this seemed perfect. No commute, no sitting in classrooms feigning interest and doing group work. It meant being at home, sitting through the course material in the comfort of an armchair, wearing comfortable clothes and probably drifting in and out with interest.
The reality, much worse. The relentless drone of the course coordinator in their monotones broadcasted through the screen. This was painful, boring and it was hard to get excited about this.
In the next room, his wife also worked from home. Between the monotony of his course work was the punctuated enthusiasm of her latest meeting. This was the new normal, but it was still novel being both at home during the middle of the day. And it was nice. It meant lunch together sometimes. Cups of tea, and when work did eventually finish for the day, no commute. Both home and free to unwind.
"Are you on a break?" His wife called out.
"Yep," He sighed.
"It doesn't sound like your having much fun," she said.
"Not really, I feel like this could be a day worth of work rather than a week of reading notes online," he said completely frustrated.
"Yeah, you look bored, what time do you have lunch?" She asked.
"Hopefully 1ish" he replied "I can make us a sandwich if you like".
"That sounds nice but maybe we can have something else nice" she responded.
He placed his headphones back on and returned to work. The dull monotone almost drifting him off to sleep as the next hour dragged on, interrupted by the occasional response to a question. Having the camera on for these things was utterly absurd. It was almost as if the whole purpose was to ensure people were still paying attention and not asleep.
His messenger pinged with a message.
'Are you still getting your 1 pm break?' It read from his wife.
'I'm not sure' he typed. 'I think we're going closer to 1.15'.
'That sucks' she messaged back 'I have a meeting at 2 and wanted to have a lunch break'.
'Sorry' he messaged back 'I'm a bit hungry, maybe start on lunch?'.
'I just might, I'm starving' she responded.
He looked down at his watch, it was 12.50, still ages to go.
"I think we're going to push into lunch a bit if that's ok because I want some feedback from the group," said the course coordinator.
He groaned with frustration and threw his head back in his hands with frustration, but when he returned his focus he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. His wife's face was just within view of the door frame. She looked different, slightly more relaxed than a moment ago, and her hair had been let down.
"Everything ok?" She mouthed.
"Yep" he nodded, "frustrating" he mouthed back.
"I'm frustrated too" she responded softly.
"How come?" He responded.
"Because I'm home with my husband and I want you to have lunch" she whispered.
"Me too" he replied, "what are we having for lunch again?" He asked.
His wife then stepped into the open door frame, she was wearing absolutely nothing and stood before him completely naked.
She then pulled out her phone and messaged him knowing that the call would pick up what she said if she spoke too loudly.