I placed a carton of almond milk in the fridge, remembering how groceries became the next battleground. If Thomas didn’t eat something, it was my expense. The yogurt I bought for breakfast? Mine alone. The almond milk for my coffee? Also mine.
“I don’t drink almond milk,” he stated bluntly while looking over one of our grocery receipts. “That’s $4.29 you owe the joint account.”
“But you drink the regular milk that we split,” I pointed out.
“Yes, because we both use it,” he replied slowly, as if talking to a child.
It wasn’t just food. It was everything. Cleaning supplies were apparently my responsibility since I did most of the cleaning.
The Netflix subscription was split 70/30 because he claimed I watched more shows. The laundry detergent was mostly my expense because, according to him, I had more clothes.
A while later, as I did the laundry, I remembered how Thomas had started using Venmo to ask me for his share of the meals I cooked. If I made pasta with a special sauce I knew he liked, he’d happily eat it, then send me money for “his part,” as if our home was a restaurant and I was his server.
I tried to be patient. I told myself that Thomas just saw money as numbers on a spreadsheet, not the touchy – feely subject it was for many people. I hoped that eventually, he’d loosen up and be more generous or think less about transactions.
As I folded the warm clothes from the dryer, I wondered when that would happen. If it would happen at all or if this was our new normal. What I never saw coming was what happened the following Monday.
It was a big day for me. I worked from home and had a crucial presentation with a potential client who could double my freelance graphic design business. I’d spent weeks preparing, creating mock – ups and rehearsing my pitch.
That morning, I set up my laptop in my home office, double – checked my slides one last time, and made sure my webcam was working.
Five minutes before the call, my phone buzzed with a Venmo request for $20 from Thomas, who was already at work.
The note read: “Wi – Fi usage fee. You’re working from home and I’m at the office.”