Unhappily Married ✓

13. Normalcy

"Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."—Katherine Hepburn

"Stella, are you even listening to me?"

I take a huge gulp of Pepsi and snap my head in Todd's direction. This is the fourth time he has disturbed me while I'm trying to watch a goddamn mystery movie.

"What?" I frown.

Leaning forward, he places his forearms on the kitchen counter. "Where's my breakfast cereal?"

I sigh, "This is the last time I'm telling you—it's in the left cabinet above the microwave."

I turn my head and focus my attention back on the TV.

"You have changed everything in the kitchen," he huffs.

I grunt.

We have returned to normalcy, haven't we?

Yesterday night, I thought a lot about our kiss and I am dying to find a proper reason as to why it happened in the first place. Yes, we're still married, but we aren't happily married, so kissing seems like such a cryptic thing to me. As much as I try to convince myself that our kiss was just a meaningless thing, I know it had a certain charm to it.

I hear Todd shuffling across the kitchen.

"I can't find something to cook for myself. Can you please come here and help me?"

I roll my eyes. "Todd, I make breakfast for the both of us every day."

I'm not in the mood to cook. It won't hurt him if he makes breakfast for one day and in fact, when I wasn't here, he used to prepare his food all by himself. No big difference.

"Pouring milk and Cheerios into a bowl isn't making breakfast," he scoffs.

 Standing up from the couch, I switch off the TV and swiftly turn around.

"Oh yeah, then doing it for one day won't squeeze your blood out." 

"I would if I didn't have a nasty pain in my wrist! It's hard to work with only one hand and do you even know how tired I get?"

Sighing, I cross my arms over my chest. "I get tired too."

He snorts.

I furrow my brow. "What?"

"You get tired, but what do you do, Stella? You just sit at a desk and type, that's all you do," he snickers.

My jaw clenches as I close my eyes to regain my composure, but it doesn't quite work out for me.

"How dare you...you're implying that writing is easy?" I say, slightly shaking my head.

He simply shrugs.

He has brought up a sensitive topic and I won't let him get away with this easily. Tell a writer writing is easy and see what he does to you.

"Well, just so you know, nobody becomes a writer overnight; it requires years of blood, sweat and tears," I say through gritted teeth.

He runs a hand through his hair. "Stella, you're just exaggerating."

"Nu huh," I mutter.

"Uh huh."

It'll be so unnatural if Todd and I don't argue regularly. Moreover, this argument proves that our kiss was nothing but meaningless. We can never stop fighting even if we try to, because we can never agree with each other. This is how our relationship has always been and this is how our relationship will always be.