Page 7 of Bad Husband

No. It’s not okay. Today’s been like being on an airplane and knowing the world just went to war and you can’t check anything. You can’t obsessively sit in front of the television while we show our military power. Instead, you’re stuck with no Wi-Fi and are 30,000 feet in the air hoping you’re not about to be shot down.

Me: Can’t get a hold of her. Did the inspector show up?

Brantley: No. I tried calling him but he didn’t answer.

What’s with people and not answering their phone today? Is it national “Do Not Answer Your Phone Day?”

Brantley: Sent Trey to the ER. They took the nail out but he’ll be off work the rest of the week.

Great. Just fucking great.

Remember my phobia with hiring people? Well, I need this job on Aster Drive by the end of the month which is why I hired Trey in the first place. The last thing I need is a laid-up trainee.

Brantley and I started Cooper Custom Homes right out of college. My trust fund financed the initial start-up of it, but it’s been just the two of us for eight years. Occasionally we contract out for certain aspects of the jobs we do. For the most part, it’s just us, and we like it that way. I take pride in knowing we built a home from the ground up.

Me: Call me when the inspector shows up. Drywall is being delivered tomorrow.

I check the time again. 2:46 p.m.

Picking up my phone, I select Madison’s name again. This time it doesn’t even ring before it goes to voicemail, so I finally leave a message. The fifty-third call, I leave a fucking message.

“Hey, it’s me. Your husband.Stillyour husband as the state of Arizona will say for the next….” I scan the paperwork where it says I have twenty days to respond, but the parties can’t advance with divorce proceedings for sixty days. “Sixty days. Is this a fuckin’ joke, Mad?” I seethe into the phone, practically spitting the words out. “You send me divorce papers, and then you don’t bother to check your phone at all today? It’s bullshit, you know?”

Okay so if I wanted to get her attention, do you think I have it now?

Probably not. This is Madison we’re talking about. I once couldn’t get a hold of her when she was pregnant because she was at the grocery store and couldn’t hear her phone ringing. I was in the parking lot when she got out, leaned against her car expecting a reason as to why she didn’t answer. I mean, she was nine months pregnant with Callan and ready to pop any day. Of course I was concerned, and she didn’t answer her phone?

The nerve of her, right?

Am I over the top?

Probably.

It’s who I am.

And what did she do when she came out to find me leaned into her car?

Rolled her eyes.

I’ll tell you a secret. I once took a shot of lighter fluid. Wait, no. I take that back. That’s not a secret, just a fucked-up story. But my reasoning here, sometimes I think I’m mentally unstable. Maybe it’s from the lighter fluid. It once got so bad that when I was thirteen, I went a whole year thinking I had schizophrenia because my cousin Josh told me so. If you look at the symptoms—personality changes, increasing withdrawal from social situations, irrational, angry or fearful responses to loved ones and inappropriate or bizarre behavior—you get a little paranoid.

Turns out I was going through puberty.

Anyways, I had a point to this story. All those feelings I dealt with while going through puberty were incredibly stressful for me. I do not like not knowing what’s going on with my body. If I have a cold or the flu, I demand to be treated that same day.

See where I’m going with this?

No? Well, you should. I don’t like being in the dark. So this shit Madison is pulling today just isn’t working for me.

I check the time once more. 3:25 p.m.

I don’t know what time Callan gets out of school, but I do know one thing, Madison picks him up, which means she’ll be at the house and I can get some answers, right?

Yes. The answer should be yes.

Grabbing the crumpled-up papers from my desk, I head out the door.

Since I leave the office shortly after three, it doesn’t take me long to reach our home in Cave Creek. Have you seen those housing developments where all the homes look the same, and everyone in them does too?

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