Have you read Jed Diamond's "Mr. Mean: Saving Your Relationship from Irritable Male Syndrome?" There's a chapter where a woman relates a situation very similar to yours. Her husband came home and said he needed space and you know the drill...anyway, he went to Europe? I think Europe--and she didn't speak to him for six months. She left him alone. He came back with gratitude for her patience. They reconciled.
"You know, it's times like these when I realize what a superhero I am." Tony Stark/Iron Man
“Focus on what you can do, then do it with all your heart.” Lois Wilson
