Living with Karina

I knew it was going to be a busy day when Mat sent over eighteen contracts. Eighteen contracts from Ted is always a clear sign there will be as many on supply to Gov. Compounded with a couple of sales to process, my day was going to be a busy one.
So when Karina asked me to find Elizabeth’s white shirt for school I wasn’t too pleased.
Yesterday I remembered Karina taking Elizabeth’s school clothes off. I was going to say they should be put on a clothes hanger but didn’t because I expected Karina to think of that herself.
So I knew the white tee-shirt had to be somewhere in the room, but for the life of me I couldn’t find it. It wasn’t on the shelf where we usually dump all the clothes and I went up stairs but it wasn’t in the many baskets of clothes in the bedroom or the clothes rack in the office.
I couldn’t find Elizabeth’s white school shirt anyway!
There wasn’t a spare. We had to find it. Nothing else mattered. Everything would have to come second, we must find the shirt.
Low and behold it was on the shelf all along. Karina missed it and so did it.
“Found it,” I shouted up to Karina, saving her from searching the baskets in the bedroom and the clothes rack in the office.
At last Elizabeth’s shirt was on and I could get on with processing the many contracts waiting for me.
Arh, not so fast Batman!
Firstly I had to deal with Lewis. So as Karina harassed Elizabeth to finish up her breakfast and comb her hair, I rocked Lewis in his chair in a vain attempt to quell his four month old moans of dissatisfaction.
Before I knew it Elizabeth was rushed out of the door and Lewis and I were left in peace.
I thought about going to the desk and starting on the contracts, but what would be the use? I knew by now that Lewis was tired and be ready for a nap. He was moaning about being stuck in the chair. I decided it would be best to postpone starting on the contracts and pick up Lewis instead.
So for the next 15 minutes that’s what I did. I held Lewis in my arms and rocked him while he wriggled and cried.
Karina eventually returned at 9.20am.
“Has he been like that for long,” asked Karina pointing to Lewis.
“Yeah, of-course,” I replied.
At long last I was able to hand him over and get on with my work.
As I expected I had a mountain to climb and with-in thirty minutes a sale come in which I had to process.
Now, I’d never complain about processing a sale. A sale equals money and that’s what we all need a lot off. Each sale takes me about fifteen to twenty minutes to process from beginning to end. They are a joy to do and I love doing as many as I can.
Off to work I went. I’m in charge of the administrative side of our small business supplying local authorities to business throughout the UK.
It’s mind numbing work which requires a lot of concentration and tapping on the computer’s keyboard.
So when Karina said she’ll be going out to the local supermarket, I welcomed it with some relief.
“Can you check our bank balance Matt?” Karina asked. She liked to know her budget before going shopping.
I got a horrible shock after logging on our First Direct bank account. £586 in over-drawn. “What,” I said. “£586 over-drawn, how did that happen?”
But we both knew how that happened. It was a week into the new month and all the bills were paid during this week. Plus the fact that the previous week we spent a small fortune going to friend’s 40th birthday party. It was Karina’s first big night out since Lewis was born and a lot of money was spent doing it.
Karina looked at me with a worried look and got her shopping list out again.
“Well, I can cross Elizabeth’s new school shirts off,” she said.
“Don’t worry Karina, I’ll make a transaction from my personal bank account,” I assured her.
There was only one thing to do. I called up Barclay’s telephone banking and transferred £360 into our joint account.
The relief on her face was palpable.
Then I remembered something.
“But isn’t the tumble dryer man coming round today?” I asked.
“Yeah, in about 5 minutes,” Karina answered.
“Oh Karina can’t you deal with him, I’ve got a lot of work on,” I asked in my nicest voice.
Before Karina answered there was a knock at the door. The tumble dryer repair man was here.
“No way, I’m out of here,” said Karina before strapping Lewis into the baby car seat and rushing out of the back door.
As she rushed off, John the tumble dryer repair man came in.
“I’ve got work to do, you don’t mind if I just crack on with it do you?” I asked John out of politeness.
“Yeah sure, go on, I’ll be fine,” he said, as I left him in the kitchen, returning to the front-room desk to continue working.
I only managed to process one contract before being called back into the kitchen.
“You see this,” said John pointing to the copious amounts of fluff inside the tumble dryer.
I had to admit, there was a lot of fluff.
“Once a year your tumble dryer needs a servicing and you can see why,” said John and I had to agree.
I suppose as with all sole trading repair men, they like to talk about their job as they work and John was the same all the rest.
It was no use going back to my computer so I talked to John as he fitted a new drive belt.
Forty five minutes later we were saying our goodbyes, and I went straight back to work.
Work, work, work. Tap, tap, tap on the laptop.
An hour went by and then I noticed Karina pulling up in the car. She was back.
I finished off what I was working on and went out to help her bring the shopping in.
We met at the back door. She had Lewis in her arms.
“Can you bring the shopping in please,” she asked.
“Yeah sure.”
The first thing I noticed was her parking. It looked as if she could wait to stop the car and get out. ‘That side windscreen wiper could really do with folding in.’ I thought. ‘It’s parked so far out a lorry passing could very easily clip it.’
It took me three trips, bringing in six bags full of shopping.
“Good shopping Karina, shame about the parking,” I said.
“Lewis was crying, I just wanted to get in as soon as I could,” she replied.
I dumped them all on the kitchen’s floor and went back into the front-room to work.
I didn’t give it a second thought. I just assumed Karina would be putting the shopping away.
I was hard at work after all.
It didn’t quite work out that way. Lewis was crying in Karina’s arms. I went to hold him but Karina hissed at me to get away. I thought it’ll be a good idea to hold Lewis for ten minutes while Karina unpacked the shopping.
Hey, if Karina didn’t want my help so be it. I’ve got work to do after all.
Without much ado and a word beside, Karina got up and walked out the front-room, taking Lewis up-stairs to calm him down. It was obvious the poor lad was tired and could do with an afternoon nap.
I just sat there at the desk processing contracts, every few moments looking through to the kitchen at the shopping bags waiting to be put away.
How long is Karina going to be?
I waited and worked, worked and waited and then couldn’t take it anymore.
Somewhere amongst the shopping would have to be something that needs to be put into the freezer or fridge without delay.
If Karina isn’t going to do it then I suppose I have no choice but to do it myself.
So with annoyance, I once again stopped the flow of my work to search through the shopping to see what needed to be put in the freezer and fridge.
No frozen produce but I did find some packages of meat which I put into the fridge. I quickly scanned through the other bags but didn’t find anything else which needed to go into the freezer or fridge. I thought about putting all the shopping away, but decided otherwise. There was a lot of shopping and it’ll take me a good ten minutes to do it all. Anyway, surely Karina would be down soon to do it. She is only putting Lewis to bed after all.
Though before returning to work I did notice the washing had finished its cycle.
It was raining outside so I knew I wouldn’t be hanging anything up on the clothes line in the garden, and hey, the tumble dryer had only just been fixed. Time to put it to work.
So taking the clothes out to put into the dryer I noticed the clothes were particular wet. Far wetter than normal.
‘I should really put these clothes back into the washing machine for a further spin,’ I thought.
‘Oh sod it; I’ve got work to do.’ I put it in the dryer and let it do its job.
But when I sat back to continue my work I couldn’t concentrate. They should really be put back into the washing machine for a further spin.
I tolerated the nagging in my mind for a couple of minutes and then gave into it. I went back into the kitchen, took the clothes out of the dryer and put them back into the washing machine for another spin.
That wasted more minutes because I had trouble turning the knob onto the correct setting.
Eventually I got back to work. There was loads of it and I had a lot more to do.
But I could see the shopping from the corner of my eye. When is Karina coming down to put it away? I bet she’s fallen asleep!
‘Come on Karina’, I thought, ‘All you had to do was put Lewis in his cot and you could have come down and put the shopping away.’
It was stressing me out.
Hey, I’ve got work to do!
About an hour later I heard Karina coming down the stairs. She walked through door with Lewis in her arms.
“Oh great”, she had clocked the shopping hadn’t been put away, “The meat has been left out has it. Well done Matt you Prat,” she lambasted me.
OK that was a lie. She didn’t actually call me a Prat, but she certainly made me feel like one.
She immediately assumed I didn’t put the meat away.
It really pissed me off, for a number of reasons. Number one; shouldn’t she have put the shopping away? I was working after all. Working my arse of to pay for the shopping and to put a roof over our heads.
Number two, assuming. She always assumes the worst about me. It’s as if her default attitude of me is one of an incompetent prat who can’t do anything without being told too.
And number three, her fucking attitude. She was the one who went up stairs and didn’t come down for an hour and a half.
“No Karina, I’ve put the meat away,” I said defending myself.
It was plain to see that Karina was pissed off. But how I was to blame I could not work out.
“I banged his head on a wall going up the stairs,” said Karina.
“Oh and why did you do that?” I replied sarcastically. She had pissed me off with her earlier comment and I wasn’t in the mood to be nice to her.
“Because I had to get away from you didn’t I,” she spat out with venom.
“Oh right, my fault too was it,” I said shaking my head.
“Oh why don’t you just work upstairs and get out of here,” she replied.
I had to shake my head in disbelieve. How did it come to this? We started off so civil to each other at the start of the day, how did it go so wrong?
How was I to blame? That was my biggest question. All I’d done all morning was work work work. How on earth was I responsible for anything she was throwing on me?
It all got too much to me.
“Actually Karina that’s a good idea. I don’t want to be anywhere near you so yes, I will go upstairs to work,” I said collecting the laptop, sales book and phone to take up stairs.
Upon entering the up-stairs office I kicked the straw basket which was on the floor in my way. Then I shouted an obscenity in frustration at the clothes rack which was in my way. Both my hands were holding something and I had to get them to my desk which was behind clothes baskets and clothes racks. I was no longer in a happy mood. Not at all happy.
‘That fucking bitch. Who does she think she is speaking to me like that,’ I thought. ‘I deserve better than that, I am better than that God damn.’
It was times like this that I wish I could walk out and not come back.
I held my head in my hands and nearly started to cry. I felt the tears well up and had to draw on all my resources not to let it get the better of me.
This is life after-all. No-one ever said it was going to be easy.
I wanted a coffee after all that and got annoyed that I’d have to go downstairs to make it. At the end of the day, if Karina had just kept her mouth shut I’d only have to walk through the front-room to the kitchen and flick the kettle on.
There was a lot of anger built up inside and even though I’d prefer not to see nor speak to Karina again, I knew it’ll be good for the soul to discuss this and try to deal the anger inside.
So when I walked into the front-room, Karina surprised me by saying sorry.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“Thanks for saying so Karina, but hell, we wind each other up don’t we,” I replied.
Even though she said sorry I wasn’t in the mood to forgive.
I went into the kitchen to make myself a cup a coffee and remembered about the clothes in the washing machine.
“Oh Karina, these damn clothes were wet and I’ve put them back into the washing machine to spin,” I said as I opened the door to see if they were spun.
They weren’t. The clothes were as soaking wet as they were when I put them in.
“Arh, damn. They’re still wet. Do you know what number the spin setting is?” I asked her.
But she wasn’t answering. ‘Oh fucking hell Karina. Help me out will yer,’ I thought to myself.
It all got too much for me. Why was I worrying about the clothes? I had work to do after all. Sod it.
I slammed the door of the dryer shut, threw down my teaspoon and marched out of the kitchen and front-room, storming upstairs to the office.
On the way out I caught Karina closing her eyes, aghast to my tantrum. ‘Fucking cheek.’ I thought. I should be the one closing my eyes aghast to your behaviour not the other way round.
I deserve better than this, I muttered to myself as I scaled the steps to my office.
I couldn’t do any work. I was too fuming. How fucking dare she treat me like her skivvy? I deserve better than this.
Everyday I’d usually pick up Lizzy from school. I’d rather not because I nearly always had work to do. But as a concession to Karina I said I’d do it. She made out it was good for me to get out of the office, get some fresh air and a bit of daily exercise. And of-course she is right. It’s good to get out, even though it does mess up my work routine. Though the biggest reason for me to do so is that Karina doesn’t have too.
I usually left at 2.45pm to pick her up but I left at 2.30pm instead. I just couldn’t stand being in Karina’s vicinity any longer. I had to get out and clear my head of the anger swirling about it.
The walk did me the world of good. By the time I picked up Elizabeth and got home I was cool as a cucumber.
I went to the office and made inroads to the work load on my desk. I finished at 5pm and came down stairs with a smile on my face.
While walking I came to the conclusion that hey, Karina is the mother of my two children and there wasn’t a chance in hell of me walking away from them.
I am stuck with Karina as much as Karina is stuck with me. As I said to her earlier. We simply can’t help winding each other up. It’s just something we both have to accept and try to sort out for the future.
Anyway, we had no more angry exchanges that afternoon and evening. It was plain to both of us that we were walking on egg shells around each other.
Karina made a wonderful king prawn, linguini dish for dinner that night.
Living with Karina isn’t really that bad after all...