What She Deserves // Lisrene

1

Irene always settled for good enough.

Never perfect, never life changing, never mind-blowing. Just, enough. Which is probably how she ended up with straight-laced, decently rugged Hank Smith straight out of college. Sort of as a final 'fuck you' to her mother, Irene packed what little stuff she had at home and took a job as the youngest ever headmistress of an academy in New Orleans, dragging Hank in tow like a human sized bundle of baggage. From there she created her comfortable life, enjoying the freedom of running her own school for girls with gifted talents. Hank just so happened to stick around for it. Which was fine, she supposed. It wasn't like she was complaining.

He treated her well, never complained when she worked long hours, always remembered their anniversary. And Irene was comfortable with it. She couldn't ask for much more, because what else could be out there? Lousy dates with men who had sweaty palms and just wanted to get laid? She was perfectly happy with what she had, thank you very much.

And it stayed that way, up until she wasn't happy anymore.

It started with a particularly beautiful sunny day in New Orleans, and Irene wanted to take advantage of it by feeling the sun on her skin after what seemed like the longest work week of her life. Sitting on the floor of her closet, surrounded by dozens of items of clothing, she tried fruitlessly to find the one blouse she had in mind. She didn't always dress up for Hank, but made it a point to make herself presentable every morning by seeing to it that her outfit was immaculate and her hair fell just right. Finally seeing a scrap of it out of the corner of her eye, she pulled the blouse over her thin frame and crawled over to the floor length mirror. Enjoying the way it hugged her curves and showed just enough cleavage, Irene smiled to herself that she could still be considered attractive, even if Hank did sometimes compare her to a hot mess.

Shuffling downstairs, she padded over to the couch where Hank sat, intensely involved in the game on tv. Running her hands over his shoulders down to his chest, she leaned down and inhaled into his neck from behind. "It's such a nice day out, babe. You wanna go have a picnic or something?"

Hank barely wrenched his eyes from the scene on tv before replying, "Shit, Irene, the game's on. You know that. Jack is coming by in a few. Remember?"

Irene didn't remember, because Hank definitely hadn't mentioned that.

She paused her movements, a swell of disappointment bubbling up inside her. "Yeah, I must have forgotten. You don't have any time today?"

"No, babe. I told you this like, a week ago." This wasn't the first time he'd done this to her and it definitely wouldn't be the last. He conveniently forgot a lot of things, and it was never his own fault. Always Irene's. Hank's invalidation at her reactions always started small fights, but she didn't want today to be ruined so quickly after it had just begun. So she let him have this.

"Okay," she straightened up. "I'll go grocery shopping or something then." Willing off tears that didn't need to make themselves known, she smoothed her blouse down and proceeded to pander into the kitchen. Sometimes when Hank treated her as though she were a child, it hurt more than she let on. Especially now that she'd reached a point in her life where she yearned for that secure feeling everyone claimed to have with 'the one.' She was still waiting for that. Hoping she wouldn't have to wait forever, she grabbed her reusable recycling bags.

Briefly pausing at Hank's motionless position, she called out, "I'll be back in a few, okay? There's beers in the fridge for Jack."

"Yeah, can you get more if you're going out? That'd be great, babe."

"Sure," she said, then, sarcastically under her breath, "You can't get off your ass and do it?"

"What was that?"