Spilt Milk – Jenny 54

[For a quick guide go here: Quick guide.]

[There's some back story here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and read more recent Jenny episodes maybe this one.]

[Other back story through in-links.]

Coffee was on the menu in the kitchen. Coffee was always on the menu in the kitchen, although now it came with nothing other than plain biscuits because the kids had worked out where the really nice biscuits were kept. Despite finding other locations, Jenny had decided it was impossible to find a more secure location which wasn’t miles away from the kitchen. And anyway, the kids were now so insistent that they should have access to the nice biscuits that Jenny was fed up with buying special ones only to find them gone before she and Izzy had a look in.

“Fancy coffee in the garden?” Jenny asked Izzy. “Rich tea biscuits.”

“‘Rich’,” scoffed Izzy. “Bit of an over statement, don’t you think? I’m a bit busy to be honest.”

“Come on,” said Jenny. “Ten minutes. You’ll feel better and the accounts won’t know any different.”

It took another three episodes of cajoling to get Izzy to come out of the house. Even then she was still staring intently at her phone screen for most of the time.

“Nice without the kids around for a change,” commented Jenny. “Bit quieter, isn’t it? Relaxing? Not that I have anything against them, of course, but it gives us a bit more head space.”

Izzy mumbled a response. And then apologised.

“Sorry. Work stuff.”

She reached out to grab a disappointing biscuit. And then reached out again to take another before she’d even started eating the first. Always searching for efficiencies, mused Jenny. 

“How’s it all going?” she asked out loud.

“It’s er, going,” said Izzy. “End of year accounts. Been trying to make it work for the past week. Waiting for department budgets and figures to come in you know? Usual stuff...”

She trailed off, muttered an expletive and ferociously typed something stabbing her phone to near death in the process.

“How close are you to finishing?”

“Yeah, you’re right, it is better with the sun,” she said.

There was a pause while Jenny looked around the garden and tried to enjoy the green shoots and early flowers. Meanwhile Izzy, one biscuit still in her mouth, reached for a third.

“Astra’s grown two heads,” said Jenny with a sigh. “Peter and Jude want to call the second one Nigel but I think it looks more like a Michele.”

“U-huh,” said Izzy, obviously not looking up. “Nice name.”

Jenny left it as long as she could. “Put down the damned phone for half a minute and talk to me.”

And then she had to shout it while standing in front of Izzy and grabbing the phone from her. Izzy looked up, astonished at the audacity of the move. 

“That’s my phone.”

“And I’m your wife. I might not give you access to emails, the weather, news and a calculator but I deserve your attention.”

“OK,” said Izzy. “OK. It’s just not a good time for this.”

“For talking?”

“For - you know what I mean. You were like this with the accounts when you did the job.”

“I was a lot more fun to be with,” said Jenny, grudgingly, and then grudging herself for having said so.

“Well I’m sorry for not being all fun and games,” said Izzy, “Only I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but there’s only one of me doing this now.”

“Your choice,” said Jenny before she could stop herself.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I didn’t – look, I’d rather we didn’t have this conversation in the back garden where –“

“You invited me out here!”

“Not to shout at you!”

“– When you knew I was busy and stressed and trying to sort everything out so no one realises what’s… Honestly!”

There was a pause.

“Realises what?” asked Jenny in a different tone.

“Nothing. I didn’t say anything,” said Izzy. “I’ve got another email to answer.”

She stabbed at her phone some more.

“Is this when it happens?” asked Jenny.

“When what happens? When we split up?”

Jenny took a breath.

“I was going to say whether this was when you admit that you did do something with their finances at Christmas. But hell, let’s talk about what you said.”

“No. No, if you think I’ve done something wrong I’d like to hear it.”

“You think that matters now? More than us?”

Izzy muttered something which Jenny asked her to repeat. Izzy did: “It’s part of us,” she said.

“Can I look at the figures?” Asked Jenny.

“Confidential,” said Izzy. “You know that.”

“So we should talk about the other thing, then,” said Jenny.

But they sat in silence while Izzy ate another biscuit. And then she went back upstairs and they didn’t speak again until breakfast the next morning when Izzy needed the milk passing to her.