All he saw was a grumpy, uncooperative wife who ruined all his plans and didn’t know how to enjoy life

Beach bag

Slinky skirts

T-shirts

Floafers

“You must listen to this, Pessie,” Yochi said, pulling his earbuds out. “Rabbi Malach on Tazria-Metzora. Don’t ask me how it ties in to the parshah, but listen.”

Pessie looked up from the list she was writing. Ex-accountants, apparently, had time to listen to inspirational shiurim. Okay, nice.

She folded the paper she’d been writing on in half. “Think you’ll have time to drive me around for some errands sometime this week?”

Yochi nodded quickly. Too quickly, like he was eager to prove that he could be trusted, even if he’d messed up with the passports the other week.

“I’ll take you, sure. I’m actually available today. Does that work?”

“Maybe…” She could throw together supper quickly, grilled chicken and rice or something, and then feed Motti lunch. “I think so. I could be ready in a half hour, 45 minutes.”

“Great.” Yochi coiled his peyos. “And then, about the passport…”

Pessie gave him a wounded look and slit a package of shnitzel open.

“Oish, Pes, I apologized. How long will my sins haunt me?”

Pessie made a face. “We need to get her a passport. It can take a few weeks and we only have a few weeks left.”

She ran water over the cutlets and reached for her shears.

“I know,” Yochi said. “Don’t worry, it will work out. I was actually thinking… Maybe we get for the whole family? You know, it’s a good idea for everyone to have passports, and if we’re going with Hindy anyway…”

Pessie turned around. “What do the kids need passports for?”

“In case we ever travel.” He twisted the wires of his earbuds over his hand. The silence stretched.

“Pessie?”

“Yes?”

“Binick’s bringing his entire family along on our Greece trip, end of July.”

“Uh, okay.”

“I was thinking… it would be so nice.” He finally put the earbuds down. “Maybe we should do it too?”

For a moment, the image floated in Pessie’s mind. She and Yochi and the kids, taking a boat ride under a glorious sky, dining at a beautiful resort.

As if. Yochi would be running the tour, he would be over his head with logistics and arrangements. He wouldn’t have time for leisurely boat rides. And yours truly would be left to deal with jetlagged, overtired kids who were allergic to schedule changes.

But even if she put all that aside, it would be one trip right after another. Unlike Yochi, there was only so much travel she could handle.

“No.” She rinsed her hands and wiped them on her apron. “No, Yochi, like so no. I’m flying to Israel with Hindy for two weeks, there’s no way I’m traveling again a month later.”

Yochi’s face fell. “I see.”

He saw? What did he see?

All he saw was a grumpy, uncooperative wife who ruined all his plans and didn’t know how to enjoy life.

What he didn’t see, with his vision gone abroad, was a healthy, stable life slowly unraveling. He didn’t see the repercussions of the fun he was so blinded by. He didn’t see the risks of exposing the children to a foreign, materialistic environment. The sacrifices; an absent father, a complete end to work-life balance. The long-term ramifications of this grand lifestyle he was suddenly itching to lead.

Pessie plunked the cutlets onto the cutting board, reached for the tenderizer, and started pounding.