“Nothing happened.”
“About a year.”
His voice sounded tight enough that I knew something had happened.
Then he said, “Since when does this pool cost this much?”
I leaned back in my chair. “About a year.”
“A year?”
“Yes.”
There was a pause.
“We used to.”
“I thought we budgeted way less than this for the kids’ activities.”
“We used to.”
“So how are we even paying for all this?”
“I cover part of it.”
Another pause.
“My work.”
“With what?”
That one actually made me laugh.
“My work.”
“What work?”
I looked across at his mother.
Johnny went quiet.
“The remote work I’ve been doing for over a year.”
“I thought that was just occasional stuff.”
“It was at first.”
Johnny went quiet.
Another silence.
I continued, “I usually work after the kids are asleep.”
There was another silence.
Longer this time.
“At night?”
“When else would I?”
I opened my laptop.
That shut him up.
For the first time, I think the math finally started working in his head.
I handled dinner, baths, tantrums, bedtime, cleanup, and whatever else exploded between five and eight-thirty.
Then, once everyone was finally asleep, I opened my laptop and worked.
