Friction in the Air

We have not been on talking terms after the vicious verbal spat on Saturday. That is usual, after every fight we don’t speak to each other and then after a few days, he would get drunk and then call me, “Koche, come here. Sit, we need to talk.”

Then the lecture would start. I would sit there, ready to explain my side of the story but somewhere in the middle of the lecture I find myself thinking, “Why bother? He is never going to change. Just keep your mouth shut and get through this.”

The usual lecture goes something like this, “I don’t like your attitude, the way you humiliate me and I have said this before and will say it again, if you want to stay with me, you will have to do it on my terms. I have given at least Rs, 20,000/- every year to your parents and have never got anything in return.”

I remain silent thinking, “Well, think of the Rs 20,000 as salary you paid for my services and its pretty cheap considering it works out to less than AED 200 a month for the cooking, cleaning, washing, sex, childcare that I provide everyday without any holiday in between.”

After that we go to bed, have sex and everything goes back to normal the next day.

But this time it was different. He did not give the lecture but we had sex, usually it is only during sex that he uses any kind of endearments towards me and that was missing yesterday. Maybe because there has been no lecture the air is still full of friction. He needs to get it out of his system for things to get back to real normal.