Natalie sighed heavily, realizing that the conversation was going in circles again. Only this time her husband chose a slightly different justification for the emerging scandal. «John, listen, let’s do without accusations. This is just a friend, and I’m not going to justify myself for communicating with other people without reporting to you. If you don’t like that I’m having a good time, that’s your problem.»
«Problem?» John began to boil. «You’re spending time on guys, and I’m here!» Natalie sharply interrupted him.
«John, enough. You’re trying to manipulate me, as always. First with money, and now you’ve moved on to invented infidelities. But it doesn’t work. I was resting here and will continue to rest, and you’re to blame for putting saving above normal human relationships.»
John tried to insert his word, but Natalie strictly continued: «And let’s agree, if you call me again with such claims, I’ll just turn off the phone and enjoy the rest. This is my last warning.»
John fell silent, not knowing what to answer. He had always been sure that he could control his wife’s behavior. But Natalie had clearly changed, and his old methods no longer worked.
«Okay,» the man finally muttered. «But watch it, you’re still behaving wrong.» «Complain to my mom about it too,» Natalie snapped.
«And my opinion is this. I deserved this rest, period, so see you.» With these words, she hung up and turned off the phone.
Surprisingly, her husband didn’t bother Natalie anymore. A week after this conversation, Natalie and Paula returned from the resort fresh and rested. They looked great.
Tanned, with smiles on their faces. After three hours on the train, Natalie hurried straight to the shower. As soon as she closed the bathroom door behind her, John, out of habit, began to grumble.
«Water flowing uncontrollably again. How much longer? You’ve been in the shower for almost half an hour. Do you even understand how much water you’re wasting?»
Natalie calmly came out of the bathroom, wrapped in a robe, and, looking at her husband, replied restrainedly: «John, remind me, I pay for the water myself, since your money isn’t enough for water, so my minutes in the shower are my concern.»
John, apparently not expecting such an answer, sighed and irritably threw two hundred dollars on the table. «Here, choke on it! Here’s for utilities!» Natalie smirked but said nothing in response.
She wasn’t going to refuse the money, as she was sure she deserved at least a hundred times more. The next day, the woman decided it was time to implement another of her ideas. In the morning, while John was drinking coffee, Natalie approached him with a paper in her hands and said:
«John, I have something new for you. Here, look.» And handed him the price list. John puzzledly took the sheet and began reading aloud: «Cooking—twenty dollars per dish, cleaning the apartment—one hundred. What nonsense is this?» John asked irritably, while Paula quietly giggled on the side…
«This is not nonsense,» Natalie answered calmly. «Since you’re so into saving, I decided that everyone should pay for themselves. I cook, so cooking costs money. You want me to clean? Pay.»
«Have you completely lost your mind?» John blurted out. «These are your direct duties as a wife. What example are you setting for Paula?»
Natalie just smiled. «Oh yes, almost forgot,» she continued from the living room, opening the closet. «The shirts I bought and ironed for you. You won’t wear them anymore. Instead, you have three energy-saving bulbs. And the iron, by the way, I’m taking too. I bought it, so you don’t use it.»
John opened his mouth in surprise. «Is this some kind of joke?» «No, not a joke,» Natalie answered.
«You want everything to be fair? So now I’ll follow your rules and in no way touch your precious budget. See the couch in the living room that we took from your mom? Now you’ll sleep on it.»
John tried to recover from the shock and reached for the kettle to pour himself another cup of coffee. But not finding the appliance in its usual place, the man irritably and puzzledly scanned the kitchen. «And where’s the kettle?»
«There’s no kettle,» Natalie answered in the same cheerful voice. «I bought it after the old one broke. So since you didn’t pay for it, you can’t use it.»
John exploded. «You’re mocking me!» «Not at all,» Natalie said softly.
«I’m just applying your own rules, John. You wanted everything to be fair. Now I’m acting according to your laws. And it’s unpleasant for me to think that you’re saving only on me. So if you want to use the kettle or shirts, buy them yourself.»
John stood silently, unable to respond to his wife’s behavior. Natalie for the first time so decisively and uncompromisingly put him in his place. For the next few days, John tried to live by the new rules that Natalie had set.
Every time he wanted to use the kettle or put on a shirt, he faced harsh reality. Natalie kept her promises. Even a hot dinner stopped being something taken for granted.
For every meal, John had to pay according to the rate his wife set. This irritated him immensely, and at times drove him to rage. One day, John, tired of Natalie’s new rules, decided to resort to cunning.
He remembered that his wife offered him to pay for every household chore and tried to take advantage of it. It seemed to the man that this way he could not only earn but also show that he could do without his wife’s help. So to speak, turn Natalie’s cunning against her.
«Natalie,» he declared one morning, «today I’ll clean the apartment, and you’ll pay me one hundred for it.» Natalie, busy with her affairs, looked at her husband in surprise but said nothing. She knew that John rarely showed initiative in such things, but decided to see where it would lead.
«Go ahead, just take your own bucket, rags, and gloves. And don’t forget about the water. There’s usually a lot of dust accumulating in the corner of the cabinet. Wipe everything well.»
John irritably nodded, then rolled up his sleeves and got to work. When Paula saw her father personally scrubbing the entire floor on his knees, she was very surprised but said nothing.
She had long understood that Mom decided to teach Dad a lesson, and overall agreed with her in this decision. From the beginning, things didn’t go as smoothly for John as he expected. He swept the dust carelessly, missing corners and leaving half the surfaces dirty.
In attempts to wash the floor, he spread more dirt than removed it, and in the bathroom used too much detergent, leaving streaks. He didn’t even bother with cleaning the kitchen, just moved the dirty dishes to the sink. «Well, there,» John said proudly, considering the cleaning done, «the apartment is like new. Where’s my one hundred?»
Natalie walked around the apartment, carefully inspecting her husband’s work. Spots were visible everywhere, dust remained in the corners. The floor shone only from excess puddles, not from cleanliness.
«And you call this cleaning?» she asked, not hiding a smirk. «You didn’t even do half the work.» «And you didn’t wash the floors in my room,» Paula added with a smile.
«But I tried,» John grumbled, feeling growing irritation. «It’s still worth one hundred dollars.» Natalie took out her wallet from her bag, pulled out a ten-dollar bill, and placed it on the table in front of her husband.
«Here, John, for your efforts. Your cleaning isn’t worth more.» John stared at the money in shock. His face even reddened with anger.
«How is that? We agreed on one hundred!» he shouted in rage. Natalie calmly replied: «We agreed that you’d do the entire cleaning qualitatively. By the way, I do such cleaning after every cooking in the kitchen, and also wash the dishes, not just stack the dirty ones in the sink. So it’s worth at most that for such work.»..
«This is some horror!» John fumed, glaring at his wife with an indignant look. «You can’t treat me like this! How am I supposed to exist in such conditions?»
John realized that his attempt at rebellion had failed. He was angry at his wife, at the rules she set, and at himself. But he couldn’t change anything.
After a few days spent in such conditions, John couldn’t take it anymore. He packed his things and moved to a rental apartment, spending money from his precious savings account, which he had been contributing to for years. For him, this was a real blow.
Spending his own savings seemed like true blasphemy. But Natalie was only glad about it. After her husband’s departure, the woman unexpectedly felt relief.
The home became peaceful again. She heard nothing about her husband until her mother-in-law called her. «Natalie, hello!» sounded a slightly irritated voice on the other end of the line.
«Hello, Tamara!» Natalie answered calmly. «How are you? How’s your health?» «Listen, this is just impossible!» the mother-in-law got straight to the point.
«John has already driven me crazy with his antics. He constantly comes to my apartment to eat, wash, and is generally planning to move here. I can’t live like this. You have to do something about it. You’re his wife after all!»
Natalie smirked. «Tamara, this is no longer my concern. John and I have separated, divorce is just around the corner. If he decided that his new life will be tied to your money, then so be it. I no longer have anything to do with it.»
Tamara, in whose voice a mixture of despair and irritation was heard, tried to object: «Natalie, but he’s still your husband!» «Was!» Natalie gently corrected. «Now that’s in the past. I’m no longer going to tolerate John’s antics on myself. I have no more desire to participate in this spectacle.»
Soon after this conversation, Natalie received an official divorce. The woman felt free and happy, and Paula didn’t worry at all about this decision. Some time passed, and one day, returning from work, Natalie noticed a man on the street rummaging in trash bins.
He was all dirty and, hunched over, searching for something in a pile of discarded things. When Natalie came closer, she suddenly realized that it was John. The saving he was so proud of had driven the man to extremes.
He didn’t notice Natalie, and she just passed by without saying a word. In her soul, she felt bitterness, but understood that she couldn’t help him anymore. John had driven himself into this corner, from which he could no longer escape.
