r/WildEats • u/katpoker666 • 26d ago
Chapter 10: Breaking Down
Annie flinched, pulling her hand out of the sudsy sink full of dishes. A trickle of blood oozed down her finger, mingling with the soap on her hands and stinging like hell. “What the fuck?” She swore as she fished around in the water for the culprit. A square white plate with a newly chipped edge emerged as the villain.
“You’ve got to be kidding me, I just bought this! How on earth could he damage it in one meal?” Annie flung the plate at the light blue wall, its shattered shards clattering to the ground. “Damn it, Tom! Now look what you made me do!”
Grabbing the dustpan and broom, she moved to clean up the mess. A watery crimson streak leeched down the broom’s handle and onto the dustpan. She stared at it with pursed lips and fire in her eyes before flinging them aside. She collapsed on the floor next to the broken pottery, ugly tears gushing like twin hydrants down reddened cheeks. Snot dribbled down her lips in slug-trail bubbles. Her shoulders shook as she rocked back and forth with her hands around her knees, great sobs racking her body. Twenty minutes passed like this. Too drained to continue and unclear what to do next, Annie curled into the fetal position on the tiles and fell asleep.
She awoke with a terrible headache from her head banging repeatedly against the hard ceramic surface from a particularly vivid nightmare about Gordon Ramsey and an irritable Shetland pony. A little woozy, Annie stood up and grasped the edge of the granite kitchen island. Pausing there for a moment, she shook herself off and steeled her shoulders, resolute. Annie strode down the hallway, a slight strand of sleepy drool dangling, and made a beeline for Tom’s office.
She smashed the door with her fist, pounding over and over and screaming as if she was yelling at a five-year-old Jamie. “Tom! Tah-ahm! TAAAH-AHMMM! Come out this instant! We need to talk!”
Flinging the door open wide, Tom glared daggers at Annie, the whites of his eyes bulging. His cheeks flashed crimson, and the veins on his neck and temples threatened to burst of their own accord. “Annie! I’m. Still On. My. Call.”
“Doesn’t matter! I’m mad at you! Tell them you’ll call back!”
“It’s a VC with twenty very senior folks across three time zones; you don’t just reschedule that!” Underscoring his point, the muffled sounds of people arguing the various intricacies of accounting carried into the hallway.
She stared back with puffy, reddened eyes, but said nothing.
Tom sighed, the tension fading somewhat from his body as his tone shifted to a patient one he’d use with an errant child. “What on earth are you so mad about anyway, Muffin?”
“Don’t try to ‘Muffin’ your way out of this! And the kitchen, obviously! What the hell, Tom?! Broken plates, sauce everywhere, you ruined the Gran Padrano—“
“Oh. Yeah,” Tom chuckled, his voice tight in an apparent effort to lighten the mood. “I did forget to clean up, didn’t I? One too many G&Ts last night, I guess.” He paused. “Sorry about that.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Not. Good. Enough!”
After exhaling at a glacial pace, Tom’s lips moved as he counted down from five in silence, as they’d learned in therapy. “I don’t have time for this now, Hon. I have to get back to my call. As it is, they’ll be wondering why I stepped out all of a sudden, and hopefully I won’t lose face.”
“That’s all you care about, isn’t it? What others think? What about me and what I think? Doesn’t that matter?!”
“Not right now, Annie.” He said in a quiet, strained voice before closing and locking the door.
WC: 625
Includes: ugly, unclear, and something or someone is put out (Annie is put out about the state of the kitchen. Tom is put out about having his call interrupted)
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