“We just had a vacation a couple of months ago!” Mark protested.

“You had a vacation,” Barbara replied. “I made sure that Allison didn’t wear that thong bikini, got sunscreen on everyone, treated Brandon’s sunburn when he didn’t get it replaced, made sure there were snacks for the beach…”

“Okay, okay,” Mark said. “I get the picture. But that still doesn’t answer who’s going to cook!”

“You’ll go to the game on Friday anyway…”

“And that’s another thing,” Mark said. “I thought you wanted to go to the game. You always do!”

“I go to the games because it’s a duty, Mark,” Barb said. “I don’t enjoy them. You can eat at the game, everyone will anyway. I’ll leave a casserole for Saturday evening. Sunday you can go out. I’ll be back Monday.”

“And I was planning on going to the State game on Saturday! Who’s going to drive me home?”

Barbara tried not to sigh or mention that that was part of her reason for wanting to get away. If the day went to form, Mark would be far too drunk to drive before the game even started.

“Catch a ride,” she snapped. “I’m sorry, Mark, but I have to get away.” She took a deep breath and counted to ten mentally. When that didn’t work she repeated it. In Japanese.

“Okay,” Mark sighed as the show resumed. “Where are you going?”

“Gulfport, probably,” Barb answered. “I’ll get a cheap hotel room and just… read I think.”

“Whatever,” Mark said, watching Jennifer Aniston bounce across the screen to the couch.

“And you’ll need to get the kids to school on Monday,” she said.

“Okay,” he replied, clearly not listening.

She stood up and walked to the bedroom, got undressed, cleaned off her makeup, climbed into bed and picked up her latest trashy novel. Another day down. Just one more until she had a break. She could use a nice relaxing weekend.