The Launch

Chapter Thirteen

It is after 9:00 on my dashboard clock as I am parking in front of my house. We got everything straightened out back at the New York office. We put Gerald in his place and defended our strip's honor admirably. By the time Monday rolls around, everyone will be ready to hand off the launch kits to the sales staff and get them all pumped up about Pilates. Ray was amazing. He was tenacious and unbending and really knew how to stick the knife in where it hurts. We have corporate convinced this is the best strip we've launched in years and worth every penny of the, ahem, large sums we have committed for trade advertising support and glossy folders.

And we accomplished all this without any help from JC. Not even a phone call. It's probably for the best right now. Let him cool off a bit. I click the button on my key fob and listen for the clunk of the car doors locking. Walk up my front steps picking through all my other keys thinking: office, shed, Mom and Dad's place, bike lock, back door, desk drawer, screen door, don't know, don't remember, front door? I wish someone would make a key fob for a house so I could just click the button and open my front door lock. Maybe someday they will. I guess that's the way the security passes work when they unbolt an electromagnetic lock. Maybe I could get one of those installed on my house.

I open the door and step into the front hall. The house is dark, so I turn on a light to hang up my coat and put away my shoes and wallet and stuff in the closet. It's not even 9:30, but I guess Jess packed it in early. Or maybe she went out or something? I look around as I'm heading towards the kitchen and stop. She's sitting in the living room in the dark.

"Hi, sweetie," I say. "What's going on?"

She just looks at me steadily. Something is wrong. She's been crying. She's kind of dressed up. What could have happened? Did someone die? Or did I forget our anniversary or what? I was supposed to do something. What were we talking about this morning? Date. Oh shit.

"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry. I forgot all about our date tonight. We had a huge issue with the strip come up today and we had to do damage control with some loser in the New York office. I took the afternoon off work to clean up the mess and I just lost track of time. Of everything."

"You didn't call," she says. "You didn't text." Surprisingly calm. Maybe too calm.

"I'm a shit. I can't believe it slipped my mind. I'm just so caught up in all this launch stuff."

"Caught up in what's important to you."

"You're important." I'm kind of frozen, but I feel like I should be moving in for a hug.

"Stay where you are."

How does she do that? "Nothing is as important to me as you are. I've just gone... temporarily crazy. I'm under a lot of pressure right now." Again, I won't knock it. Temporary Insanity might make a good plea someday.

"This comic strip is the best thing that ever happened to you. I get it."

"Well, yeah, but... no, I mean, you're the best thing that ever happened to me."

"Uh-huh." She looks away from me, which is its own kind of communication.

"Let me make it up to you. Let's go out right now. Or tomorrow night. We could go to a club and I'll even dance."

"You're going to make it up to me for missing a date that was supposed to make it up to me that you've been absent from our marriage."

"I wouldn't say I've been absent from our marriage. I've just been really busy and stressed out for the last week."

"I have no idea that you're stressed. You never talk to me about it. I never know what's going on because you don't share it with me. You've been absent for a long time."