Curlers in her hair, Holly picked up the phone. And then slammed it back down. She refused to use her cell phone for this. That would waste too many of her precious, not-unlimited minutes.<\/p>\n
Holly stood. Paced. Sat. Stood. And paced some more. Her worn boots skirted across the linoleum her husband installed just weeks ago. She wanted tile, but what could she do? He lost his job days after they ripped out the rotting wood, and she was just a store manager. They weren\u2019t allowed luxuries. And that bugged her. If she had known what a cheapskate he was going to be, she wouldn\u2019t have married him. Didn\u2019t she deserve more? Didn\u2019t she work hard, too? Didn\u2019t she deserve some stupid tile?<\/p>\n
Holly sat again. Her husband was the problem. He always had been. He was always more interested in creating budgets and stupid Excel spreadsheets than her. He barely even kissed her anymore. Didn\u2019t she deserve that? But above all of that\u2026 he\u2019s the one who brought that awful woman into her life.<\/p>\n
Biting her fingernails down even further and chipping away at the last of the fire engine red nail polish she painted just yesterday, she scowled. This was just a full-blown, outrageous nightmare. How could she do this? How could she confront her? The woman she was supposed to love, but just couldn\u2019t? She loathed her. She wasn\u2019t going to change her tune.<\/p>\n
Holly picked up the phone again. This time, she dialed. Voicemail. She frowned. This could not be resolved by voicemail. Her mother-in-law could not call her a vile name at Christmas dinner and then only be called out via voicemail. Nope. Not going to happen this way.<\/p>\n
So Holly hung up the phone. She wouldn\u2019t deal with this further. She was done with this mother-in-law. She was done with this marriage and especially done with this ugly, ridiculous linoleum floor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Another piece from my MFA course… \ud83d\ude42 Curlers in her hair, Holly picked up the phone. And then slammed it back down. She refused to use her cell phone for this. That would waste too many of her precious, not-unlimited … Continue reading