The Path Not Taken

Chapter 4 : Working for the Weekend

"It's finally Friday!" Kate thinks to herself as she pulls into the parking spot and puts the car in park. "Thank. God."

Taking a deep breath, Kate grabs her bag, opens the car door and starts walking slowly towards the front of the building. As she approaches the sidewalk leading to the front door, she can't help but be reminded of the dreary opening scene of 'Joe Vs. the Volcano'.

"One more day, Katie," she says quietly to herself. "You've got this."

While Kate hasn't been able to admit it to her friends, colleagues at work or to Rick, she has been regretting taking the new position at work. Between not being in love with the work, the added stress of learning a new, more mentally tasking job, busy evenings of helping with homework and the girls' extracurriculars - extracurriculars that are not just in the evenings, but on the weekends as well - there seems to be very little downtime to decompress these days. And even less time for date nights. . .

A year ago when Kate had applied for the new position she knew she'd be giving up the part time schedule that she had had in her previous job, - a schedule she'd worked out with her old boss when the girls had gone back to in person learning after the pandemic and Cassidy was struggling and needed a little extra support from her -  but she thought with the flexibility of Rick's job that she was ready to take on more at work and to prove that at her age she could still learn something new and that there was more out there for her than the comfort of the position she'd held for 15 years prior.

These days she truly missed the flexibility, reliability and predictability of her customer service and audit position in the finance department.

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As the work pile begins to subside and quitting time approaches, some of the stress of the week begins to dissipate and the tension in Kate's shoulders and jaw begins to loosen.

"I need a relaxing bath and a glass of wine when I get home to unwind from this hellish week." She texts Rick.

Her phone vibrates almost instantly.

"Why don't you do more than that?", Rick replies.

"Huh?" is all she can say in reply, because she truly doesn't understand.

"Why don't you take the night off? Get away. See what your girlfriends are up to, or get a hotel room solo. Order room service. Soak in a tub you don't have to clean yourself. Relax."

Relax? What was that? This wasn't the first time that Rick had made this suggestion, but she'd never taken him up on it. There always seemed to be way too many obligations and even a night alone on a Friday or Saturday night seemed hard to coordinate with the girls' sports schedules.

Sports schedules. The soccer game.

Sigh.

"Tonight won't work." She sent back.

"Why not?"

"The soccer game."

"So we take separate cars and you take a bag with you and leave afterwards."

"You think?"

"Yes. I do. I'm going away next week, you're maxed in every way and you deserve this. Please, go, enjoy. I promise I have this under control."

Could she really do this? Was she even physically capable of relaxing? And if she did take him up on the offer, where would she even go and in such short notice?