Did he think she didn’t see the gym bag? Or the preworkout he left on the counter? Who did he think cleaned the counters every day, anyway? Magic elves? She rolled her eyes.

She needed to get ready for work. Uch, work. It was becoming sooo monotonous to just sit there and collate and arrange schedules and organize parent conferences….

Her phone pinged. Um, Pinny’s still sleeping. Do I do CPR or call his rebbi? Choices, choices.

Estee cringed. That was way too much information, plus what was up with Ayala’s negativity? She literally sounded like she didn’t even like her husband of one month. But hey, Estee was more than happy to one-up her here.

Oh, dw. Yonah’s up on time for the first time in a month… to work out.

She smiled wryly at Ayala’s monkey covering its eyes emoji and went to get ready for work, trying to ignore the growing pit of guilt in her stomach. Why’d she text that? It was none of Ayala’s business what time Yonah woke up and what he did. And what if Ayala said something to Pinny and Pinny said something to him? He’d feel so betrayed….

She got to work early, made a large coffee, opened the computer, and began answering the school emails. But before long, her hand started itching to check her personal emails. They didn’t have email at home, and she knew Bais Yaakov didn’t mind if the staff checked their mail sporadically throughout the day.

Giving into the urge, she switched tabs. Awwww, Gita loved the shots. Estee bit her lip and looked closer at her pictures. They really were incredible; that camera was totally worth it. And that golden hour lighting was insane. True, she’d almost missed putting on makeup like a normal person in time for Shabbos, but it was worth it.

See, that’s what she wanted to be doing. Kneeling in the grass, snapping pictures of gorgeous babies, not sitting here, wasting her talents at a desk.

She clicked back into her work emails. The bowling alley was confirming for the end of the year school trip. Yes, perfect, reserved.

She clicked back onto the photos. Tammy came up behind her.

“Yummmm, who are those kids? They’re precious.”

Estee grinned. “Forget the kids, what do you think about the quality of the shots?”

Tammy gasped. “Did you take those? No! They’re incredible. Estee! You’re so talented! Do you want to take of my kids? What’s your pricing like?”

Whoa, pricing? She hadn’t thought about that yet. “Oh, wow, so fun. I’ll, uh, email you my price list, okay?”

Tammy gave her a thumbs-up. “Amazing. I’d love to do a summer shoot. Maybe all in white and denim? Hmmm….”

Estee sighed happily, and went back to answering school emails. White and denim could look so fresh. And then, at the end, she could hand out popsicles, and catch some drippy, sticky candids… That could be gorgeous.

“Uh, Estee?”

She looked up. Tammy’s voice sounded weird. “Yeah?”

“Did you confirm the bowling trip for the 29th?”

“Yes, just a few minutes ago.”

Tammy closed her eyes. “You confirmed a nonrefundable reservation for the 29th. Which is a Saturday. Also, school ends Thursday the 27th.”

Estee felt the bottom fall out of her stomach. She hadn’t.

Tammy blew out a long breath. “Call them. Now.”

After an hour-long conversation, in which work piled up faster than laundry, she finally convinced the bowling alley to change the reservation. But they were not amused. Neither was anyone else. And maybe that’s why Estee made her next move. She wasn’t really sure. All she knew was that somehow, at the end of the longest day of her life, she was in Mrs. Grossman’s office, handing in her resignation.

She was telling Ma about it later, when Yonah walked in.

“Ma, Yonah just got home,” she said, smiling at him. “Gotta run.”

She put the phone on speaker as she handed Yonah a cup of ice water. He smiled gratefully.

“Okay, Est,” her mother said. “And I’m proud of what you did at work. Follow your dreams.”

Yonah raised an eyebrow at her.

She waved an airy hand, feeling slightly nauseous at the idea of telling him what she did.

Her mother kept talking. “Oh, and I made Yonah that appointment at the gastro. Dr. Berger will be able to tell you right away if he’s lactose intolerant. Bye sweetie, send Yonah my love.”

By the time Mrs. Lefkowitz clicked off, Estee’s face was beet-red and Yonah was no longer smiling.

“But why?” he asked.

“Because. It was boring and unstimulating.”

He’d actually been questioning why she would call her mother to discuss his stomach issues, but okay, her quitting had been his next question.

“Ah. And you didn’t want to, you know, discuss it with me first?”

She blushed and spooned meatballs onto his plate. He cheered up slightly. He loved meatballs.

He decided to put the conversation on hold over dinner and schmoozed about yeshivah instead. He could tell Estee appreciated this; she was particularly talkative and attentive.

Later, as they were washing dishes, and he was trying to find a way to broach the burning topics without getting into a fight, his phone rang. He put it on hands-free and scrubbed a plate.

“Hi, Ma.”

“Hi, sweetheart, how are you? How’s your stomach? Your mother-in-law told me she made you an appointment on her insurance.”

Don’t react, don’t react, don’t react.

“Anyway, Yons, Daddy and I wanted to speak to you about something.”

He felt beads of sweat pop out on his forehead. Someone was dying. Or sick. He sank into a chair, Estee hovering at his shoulder worriedly. His blood was pulsing so loudly he almost missed the rest of her sentence.

“…moving! And I think we’ve chosen Lakewood as our next stop.”

Estee dropped the mug she was holding. Amazingly, it didn’t crack. Golda’s words echoed around the kitchen.

His parents were moving to Lakewood.

They really needed to stop putting conversations on speakerphone.

To be continued…

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1020)