'I... I'm sorry, I just forgot, you know I had a lot of stuff going on today, Amy.'
Amy didn't say a word as she slammed the disconnect button on her phone with her thumb; only a sharp grunt of frustration left her lips.
Three fucking times this morning I told you, Eugene!
She recounted her pleading with him before she left for work to swing by the power company and negotiate a dispute on their power bill this month. Of course it could've just been a phone call, but they lived right down the street and as Eugene liked to say, "It's always better to do things face to face."
Well, I guess you weren't even capable of that, were you? Every time something's got to get done, you always fuck it up!
She rolled her eyes and sighed, spinning in her office chair to turn back to her workstation. Amy briefly considered calling them up herself, but that hope was quickly dashed as she read the time on her monitor as twenty past five. Unfortunately, they didn't support 24-hour operations; that task would have to be put off yet again. The thought of her asking Eugene again when she got home only exacerbated her stress.
I've given him chances upon chances chance to prove he gives a shit about this family and...
Amy's thoughts trailed off into nothingness. What was the point of dwelling on it?
'How did it get this bad?' Amy's voice was soft as her eyes lingered on the silver band studded with three small diamonds on her left hand.
This wasn't the man I married
. It was fifteen years ago when the two of them spoke their vows at the altar. Eugene was the love of her life; he was dependable, kind and considerate. He was a man that any woman would have been proud to call her husband.
Fifteen years, however, is a long time. A beer gut, slight hair loss and the general battery of health-related issues that come along with aging had subtly eaten away at the man. While the grey flecks in her otherwise-brown hair reminded Amy that she was not immune to the visual passage of time either, at least she had a career and a professional legacy to show for it. She was proud to say she had risen in her firm from secretary to VP of sales within a decade. Eugene, meanwhile had only slid downhill visually as well as mentally.
'Hey Amy, you get the memo about that time change for the Q3 report meeting?' a warm, familiar voice called out to her from beyond the bounds of her office and pulled Amy from her daze.
'Uhh, yeah, I already pushed it out to my people, thanks,' she responded cheerfully. The voice's owner peeked around the office door.
Justin and Amy had begun at the firm at around the same time and while her days were filled with taking calls and jotting down meeting notes, he was an intern for the sales team of which Amy was now VP. They had worked together for the majority of their time and while his new position as a senior marketing executive had pulled them apart more often, he still made time to check up on her every now and then.
'Justin, did you get that thing I sent you, it was supposed to be sent to Scott, but I think he's out for the day.'
'Yeah, don't worry about it, I left it with his secretary and I asked him to get back to me about the Woodwick client while I was down there.' Amy breathed a sigh of relief. Even after all these years of working together and the trials and tribulations both had endured, Justin was as dependable as ever. 'Hey, you okay?'
'Yeah, I'm fine, my husband just forgot to take care of something at the house again.' Amy didn't consider it entirely professional to bring her home life within the bounds of her office, but Justin was different. The two colleagues had supported each other through all kinds of struggles. Justin laid himself bare in Amy's office away from prying eyes when his beloved dog passed away and in another instance Amy solicited his advice regarding a particularly troublesome incident involving Eugene. 'I'm sorry, all I've been doing it bitching to you lately, at least more than I talk about work.'
'Oh, stop.' Justin entered her office and leaned against the doorjamb. 'You're nothing. Kelly over in accounting just won't shut up about the most inane shit and trust me, coming over here is an escape when she starts running her mouth.' Justin was a lanky individual; he had hit a growth spurt during puberty and his never body never completely caught up to his height. A couple of inches over six feet, he occasionally had trouble with doorways; a fact Amy was more than happy to remind him of whenever he would accidentally crack his forehead.
Despite the entrance-related awkwardness, the height combined with silky blond hair and the retention of his thin athletic figure from youth made Justin quite an attractive man. To be able to fit in the same clothes he owned when he was in high school was not an achievement most 35 year olds could claim.
Amy herself had grown a bit of a pudge since her wedding. Personally she felt that she couldn't hold a candle to her days of a carefree teenager, although she remained proud that her ass had largely retained its shape and firmness. Despite her misgivings, she could feel male eyes on her whenever she would go the bar during after-work outings with her department. As long as the stares didn't last too long, she had the self-awareness to appreciate the compliment. On occasion she even caught Justin's eyes appreciating her body, which she made no real attempt to stop.
'Not a very high bar to set, but I'll take it.' Amy started shutting down her machine to leave work for the day. 'Any plans after work?'
'Nah, just gonna head home and feed the cat and call it a night.' Justin stretched and yawned.
Just a typical Tuesday night for old Justin
. Amy grabbed her papers and strode towards the door.
'See you tomorrow, Justin.' Amy gave his arm a comforting touch as she left the office for the evening. Justin wordlessly waved in response. Even when he came up to see how she was doing every once in a while, he wasn't too chatty. It was a nice quality in a man, Amy thought, to know when to speak and when to refrain.
Unlike Eugene.
The slight high Amy received from Justin's presence quickly receded as she reached the office parking lot. Hearing her husband blabber excuses on how he failed to live up to today's tasks was not an event worth looking forward to, and right now the only thing separating her from her evening at home was a twenty-minute commute.
Amy didn't
hate
the man; her feelings could be more accurately summed up as a blend of chronic disappointment and shame. Where he previously didn't have to be told to handle whatever minutiae came up that day, more and more often his initiative degraded to a begrudging sense of duty, to finally only respond to constant badgering from his wife. It was Eugene's uninterrupted, slow descent down the slope of apathy and malaise over the years that she despised and regretted more than the end result that waited for her at their home. She could handle men that fit his current description in the day-to-day; tons of them filled the walls of her building every day. There was a reason Amy did not marry one of them.
With a deep breath, Amy calmed herself the best she could, and as she left the parking lot into the adjoining street, she let the monotonous journey of her commute home soften her senses and prepare her mind for returning home.
-----------------------------------------------
The familiar scent of lavender and cinnamon from a myriad of air fresheners and candles entered Amy's nostrils as she cracked her front door. It was a home befitting her upper middle class income-eighteen hundred square feet with two bedrooms and a home gym. The home was older and required constant maintenance, this task being the impetus for Eugene reducing his own job hours to a part-time status. As Amy traced a finger on the foyer lamp and received a thin layer of dust in return, it was evident that upkeep was slacking.
How surprising.
'Eugene, I'm home.' Amy sat her purse down by the front door and checked the kitchen. She spied her husband sitting on the couch in the adjoining living room watching television. The lack of any kind of meal preparation in the next room belied just how long he had been sitting there. Eugene was a heavyset man, slightly taller than Amy. A receding hairline and a growing bald spot adorned his head and a pair of glasses rested on his nose.
'Hi, honey.' Eugene sat up and stretched his back. 'I didn't know what time you were going to be getting home at, so I figured I would just wait before I started cooking.'
Amy felt her internal temperature starting to rise and she closed her eyes.
Do not blow up on him, do not blow up on him.
With an exhale, she regained control of her temper enough to speak.
'You could have called.' Amy pulled out pots and pans. If he hadn't done his job and at least began some kind of dinner prep, she would. 'I could've at least given you some kind of time window I was going to be home, but you haven't done shit. And that doesn't even count what happened today with the power company.'
'I told you about that, I was busy.' He yawned and sat back down when he saw her efforts in the kitchen. 'I'll get it done tomorrow, I promise.'
I was busy.
Amy lost it.
'Busy? What the fuck do you DO around here anymore!?' Eugene almost jumped out of his chair. 'Every time for like the past two months I ask you to do something, nothing. There's always some kind of excuse, and when I got home today, what do I see, your fat ass in front of the TV again.' Eugene tried to speak, but she cut him off. 'Don't even start, Eugene. You've been doing nothing but dragging ass constantly around here for a long time. I don't know what happened, or why, or why you haven't even talked to me about it, but I'm sick of it.' In frustration, she skidded a saucepan along the counter and gave up. 'Fuck it, I'll skip dinner tonight. Make whatever you want.'
'Amy, no, stop, I'll cook something.' Eugene began haphazardly pulling ingredients out of the pantry in an effort to salvage his wife's mood. 'It's okay, you don't have to do anything.'
'No, Eugene, I have to do
everything
.' Amy sighed and moved briskly into the bedroom. 'Go ahead and make yourself whatever you want.'
She closed the door and heard nothing more from her husband. The last thing she wanted right now was to be around Eugene or even to hear him. It was bad enough he flubbed his errand this morning, but now dinner?
Christ, he's useless.
Whatever breath control techniques Amy tried to calm herself with failed, but at least she temporarily put him out of her mind and the anger began to recede. Well, she was home now, and at her disposal now were more effective means of stress relief.
Amy unbuttoned her work shirt and gingerly ran her fingertips down the front of her neck and across her chest. She traced small circles on her tits with one hand, while the other unzipped her skirt.
Oh, how she missed being taken to bed every night and laid properly. Of course, in the early days of the marriage her and Eugene couldn't stay off each other but now, his lackadaisical attitude around the house had extended to the bedroom. Even if the man could perform, at the current moment Amy was having none of it.
'Honey, you know what, I'm just going to head down to the bar with the guys and grab something there,' Eugene hollered from the kitchen. The annoyance of his voice breaking her concentration turned to mild curiosity as Amy briefly ceased her pleasure.
He doesn't usually head over until later on in the week, this is odd.
'You sure, Eugene?' Amy made herself semi-decent and opened her bedroom door. 'How long you going to be gone?'
'Probably until nine, nine-thirty or so.'
Three hours, at least
. She finished closing her shirt.
