There was a change in their lives, true, but how many people would feel blessed to have to deal with this kind of problem?

"This feels like Chol Hamoed. Or sheva brachos.” Pessie followed Yochi out to the deck off their kitchen.

Yochi grinned. “It’s nice, huh? When was the last time we ate breakfast together?”

Yeah, well, it was nice for a day. Max a week. They weren’t really going to spend a half hour every morning having breakfast together, were they? Great for Yochi that he was finally a free bird, but she had stuff to do. How was this supposed to work?

Yochi slit a baguette open. Pessie winced as he emptied half a container of vegetable cream cheese into it.

“Hey, cheese is healthy!” Yochi protested.

“Did I say anything?”

He laughed.

“Where do you put all those calories?” Pessie asked.

For all his awful eating habits, Yochi still weighed less than her. Pessie shook her head and stuck a straw into her smoothie. “Just reminding you, we’re doing Hindy’s passport this afternoon, right? It’s crazy that both parents have to be present.  You can’t imagine how complicated it was to make arrangements for all the kids.”

She sipped her drink. Calories aside, she had no idea how Yochi functioned with all those carbs in his system so early in the morning.

“Remind me again,” Yochi said, “what time?”

“Three o’clock. Hindy’s coming home early with the preschool bus.”

Yochi took a huge bite from his sandwich. “Sounds good.”

Pessie took her smoothie cup and stood up. “I gotta go now. My first client is arriving any minute. See you later.”

She didn’t want to ask him what he was going to do until three. What did ex-accountants do the day after they left their jobs except eat breakfast with their wives?

When she came upstairs to fold laundry, between her first and second clients, she smelled onions. Looked like ex-accountants spent their time exploring latent culinary talent the day after they left their jobs.

She peeked into the kitchen curiously. Yochi was seasoning a pan of something, singing along with MBD. Good for him to be done with tax season stress. But if he was going to leave a sink full of dirty dishes…

When she finished training her second and last client for the day, Yochi was no longer home. He’d washed the dishes but left them out on the counter to dry. And there was a pan of something in the oven, she was afraid to find out what.

Pessie, stop.

This wasn’t fair. She’d resolved to make the best of the situation; she couldn’t spend her days feeling resentful. There was a change in their lives, true, but how many people would feel blessed to have to deal with this kind of problem?