He Makes It Hard To Stay Angry

Just as I expected, Excitement met me at the door last night. Before I could even mention the fight we’d been through earlier that morning, he drew me into his arms and kissed me.

“I’m a jerk.” He said. “Forget everything that happened. I’m a jerk.”

I gently pushed him away and hung up my school bag and keys on the hook by the door. I glanced around. I was surprised to see that not only had he done a few dishes, he had scrubbed the entire kitchen down and sanitized it. The scent of bleach still hung heavy in the air. On the stove he was cooking spaghetti with homemade meatballs, my favorite dinner. The living room was spotless. The floor had been vacuumed. He’d even gone into my son’s room and straightened up all his toys. He was making it very hard to stay angry.

“Here, sit down,” he urged me. “Get comfortable. I’ll have a plate ready for you a minute. I’m sure you’re hungry. Tell me about school. I know you hate your English professor. Did class go okay?”

He busied himself in the kitchen as I sunk into my seat on the sofa. When I didn’t begin to speak, he filled the silence.

“I know you want to talk about what happened, but eat first and then we’ll discuss it.”

After a very pleasant dinner we addressed the fight that had occurred that morning.

“I’m a jerk,” he began again.

“But you’re a jerk that I love.” I smiled back. That made him laugh.

“I got so insecure that I couldn’t satisfy you that I was willing to just pull away from you all together. I was going to clean up after myself and then move out, but while I was cleaning I started looking at things from your side.”