A Change in Lifestyle

By Julie Dawn Cole

‘That’s it I’ve had enough. Nothing I do is good enough. You fuss about all day instead of getting a proper job. You take over the house and I’ll show you how to be a man!!’

She slammed the door until it almost fell off the hinges and I heard her start her car and roar off out of the driveway and down the street. She was particularly angry this morning because I’d received a letter saying I wasn’t selected for the position of Manager of our store. My rival, Jackie Lister had got the job. I’d been terrified to open the letter fearing it was bad news and my wife Helen had almost opened it herself.

We’d had a frustrating weekend of bickering at each other and whilst she’d just said nothing she did was good enough that’s just how I felt with her. If I tried to book something she’d take over. If I drove us somewhere she’d insist we changed places because I drove too slowly and got lost easily.

We’d supposed to work together over the weekend spring cleaning that I enjoyed a lot but unfortunately to Helen it was a toil and not a pleasure. She didn’t even enjoy the trip to the supermarket for the weekly shop. She’d lost her temper with me when I was fussing over the rise in prices for vegetables and when we were cooking dinner I’d been critical about the mess she made of the kitchen that I’d cleaned. I guess I went a little bit too far.

Helen is very successful as Director of Purchasing Department of a major Retail Company and she gets to travel a lot these days. She has a personal assistant and a secretary so I guess she’s got used to making decisions quickly and organizing and at work she is quite a disciplinarian. I’ve accused her of treating me like one of her workers and at first she used to apologize whereas recently she just shouted at me if I objected.

I suppose things had been getting steadily worse in our relationship. I didn’t envy her the success she’d had and I wasn’t ambitious. I think she felt that she was the main bread winner these days so she had the right to speak to me like she had done the day before. She’d told me I was behaving like a girl when I sulked after she shouted at me.

She’d told me that I should go get my hair cut and go to the gym with her and Emma to build myself up. Emma was her personal trainer who had set up a training program for Helen that really had been effective. She had lost her body fat and she seemed taller and stronger and her clothes fitted her much better these days. She called at the gym every day to meet Emma when she was home and always carried her sports bag on business trips.

On the other hand I wasn’t quite so fit although I must admit that as I took on more of the household duties I felt it was like a fitness program in itself and I’d lost almost a stone as a result. I wanted to lose a little more but I found my clothes were too loose. I did also enjoy to do some dance and movement routines using two of Helens DVD’s. I’d imagine that I was a Helens wife at home and I always managed to fit this into my daily schedule of chores and 2 hour timeslot of searching for jobs on the internet.

I’d met Helen several years ago when we both training in Retail Management in the same Company. She’d done very well yet I’d not been very successful managing people. So she’d advanced through the organization whilst I’d been made redundant 2 years ago after which I’d finally had to take any job that I could get. Now I just had a part-time job covering for a girl on maternity as Assistant Manager and I’d tried to get a permanent job because I had all the necessary qualifications. Sadly I was too quiet and not aggressive enough for modern management requirements.

By the way I’m Robyn Cooper and my wife who refused to drop her name is Helen Boyd-Cooper. She insists to call me Robyn Boyd-Cooper and a lot of correspondence comes to us as Mr and Mrs Boyd-Cooper through her influence. Even my tax form had carried this name somehow.

Well that’s a bit of background about us and the events that led up to a change in our lifestyle. I’ll tell you more if you like......