"That was Jeff," Tom said as he hung up the phone.
"Oh, what did he want?" Jeff is Tom's friend who is coming in another week, at the tail end of their family's trip to Florida.
"Well, they might stay here overnight on Friday so they don't have to get a hotel."
I took a deep breath. "What?" I'm pretty sure my nostrils flared, though I tried to keep myself in check. Progesterone shot two days earlier.
He repeated himself.
"You realize that I'm still exhausted from all of the company from the last two weeks? I specifically said the tail end of their trip was fine because it would give me a little bit of a break." My voice cracked as I said it.
"It's not a definite, hun. And if they stop, it'll only be for the night."
"Well, since I'm the one doing the work, don't you think I deserve to know when they're going to be here? Maybe and might aren't good enough for me. You need to book a definite."
It would be one thing if he'd helped prepare the house for our onslaught of company during the first round, but all he'd done was run the vacuum on the stairs and make supper on one of the nights. The rest had fallen on my shoulders. Between work and his class, he wasn't going to have time to help me.
"I'll find out."
On Tuesday, he didn't have an answer for me. On Wednesday, no answer again. On Thursday, I received a phone call from Tom at 2:30, right before the girls were getting home from school and the mad rush to finish homework would begin. Thursday nights always brought extra homework for Lesa.
"Hey, hun, Lyn didn't tell me that the phone rang last night while she was playing on it. Jeff left a message. They're coming tonight."
I was pissed. The guest bedding hadn't been washed yet because if they were coming, it wasn't for another day. The house was not ready for guests. It wasn't at a level where I would call it a pit, but I had a few hours of work to do. Plus, I had to help with homework, cook dinner, and I needed to run to the grocery store.
"I'm going to pretend that I don't want to strangle you right now," I said before hanging up the phone. And then I screamed and cried.
Eventually I calmed down enough to send a text. If you know me, I loathe texting. I will do so if I must, but I'd rather stick a fork in my eye and call it breakfast. "You are going to help me when you get home. If you sit down to play your computer game before the house is ready, I will leave for a four-star hotel."
"Will do," he texted back.
I ordered pizza for dinner and worked until my back hurt so badly that I couldn't anymore. It was after nine before I went to bed and I hadn't had a chance to go to the grocery.
I don't think they arrived until after midnight. It was almost one before Tom came to bed. The next morning, I sent the girls off to school. They were upset they hadn't gotten to visit with Jeff's children and they weren't going to get to see them until next week.
