DifRent's Journey - 27 days in, thread 2

[DifRent]

Yesterday afternoon, the W had all these tasks she wanted to accomplish before the end of the day. She started working on them with her usual tenacity, while I worked on some other things for the business, when the doorbell rang. She'd arranged for, she thought, some guy to come test the house water for maybe half an hour. Turns out he was a water filtration salesman who was there for over two and a half hours demonstrating and doing his dog and pony show! We both stood there for a few minutes, after which she said, "Hon, you don't have to be here." But she was stuck.

By the time she came to the office, she was in a frenzy. "I can't get to the post office in time... need to distribute these cards..." this, that, and the other thing. "What time are we doing James's birthday dinner? I need to get to the gym..." Complete stress and panic mode, which of course is nothing new.

So I stepped in to calm the waters... took all the mail, the checks for the bank, the cards that had to be distributed... just took a bunch of things off her plate and told her to get to the gym, we'd do dinner around 6:30 or 7. I had to meet a friend (who'd also recently been dumped) for drinks at 5 anyway, so it all worked out.

As my friend and I had this wonderfully empathetic conversation at the pub, my phone died. W thought, for some reason, that we'd start our party at 5:30. I didn't return till 6:15. She texted, called, freaked out... even went driving in the neighborhood where I was supposed to be distributing the cards. But I had no idea because my phone was dead.

When I got home, she wasn't there. I thought she was at the gym, so I started in the kitchen. When she came in, she was all over me... "I was worried, why didn't you answer when I called, I know you see my name and you don't want to pick up the phone, but I thought maybe you got arrested or someone hurt you..." it was just nuts.

But the rest of the evening was pleasant enough... had a nice dinner, she sat next to me on the loveseat outside, I was weak enough to allow her to slide her foot under my leg and, at one point, grab my face, kiss me and squeeze me, and tell me how cute I was. I got terrible news before the night was over about a friend's son having committed suicide, so she was sort of compassionate about that. I made the mistake of telling her that if her back hurt, she could come to bed, just for the night. She declined... which was the right move, but I shouldn't have offered.

I'm looking at a weekend she has filled with plans, so I'm working on filling the weekend with my own. I have to say, I wish I saw more success stories on this board. It's great to have the support of people who are going through the same stuff, but I'd love to see a few more breakthroughs.