Why did it seem like everyone else in the world was living up married life, and Estee was… vacuuming?

T

here were pillows everywhere. On every bed, couch, and armchair. But why?

Yonah tossed a pillow off of the Lazy Boy, a plaid rectangle thing, and watched with no small amount of satisfaction as it landed squarely on the couch. It was a good shot.

Estee came in, balancing a puzzle box, a bowl of popcorn, and two Diet Cokes.

“How are you going to do a puzzle from the recliner?” she asked, one eyebrow raised.

It was a good point.

With an exaggerated groan, he slid to the floor next to the coffee table and tried not to think about what he would be doing at night seder right now.

Not that he wasn’t loving his second week of shanah rishonah; he absolutely was. It was just an interesting matzav, being the first of your friends to get married. Estee was in almost the same boat, the second of her tight group of friends.  Estee was only 20 while he was the ripe old age of 21.

Just Ask, and all that.

They’d asked, he’d answered, and now here he was, trying to find the end pieces for the yellow cat.

Estee grinned at him. “Ten Monopoly dollars for your thoughts.”

“Monopoly dollars?”

She nodded primly. “We are officially a kollel couple. Sheva brachos is over, let the budgeting begin.”

They laughed, and Yonah held up his Coke in celebration. “Bring it on, I am nothing if not frugal.”

Estee held up her Coke as well and then put it down with a thud. “Okay, enough fooling around, these cats aren’t going to build themselves.”

Guess you can’t have everything, he sighed inwardly. Pasting on a big smile, he got to work, relieved that Estee had forgotten to follow up on why he was lost in thought.