DH has a telephone relationship with SS. He calls a couple times a week, and I rarely hear any of the convo or get much of a report other than maybe headlines.

This morning I was getting ready for a swim in our pool. I have a heart condition (under control) so I don’t swim unless somebody is there, and DH said he’d be right out. SS called and I become instantly invisible. Damn that’s such a trigger for 20+ years of bad behavior. I wait a bit, then interrupt DH and ask him to move outside. Oh sure, and he’s really sorry. For the 3211th time.

I get in the pool and until I really get going I can hear their conversation because DH has SS on speaker. SS’s new job isn’t what they promised, they’re making bad business decisions, people aren’t honest, his boss is threatened by SS’s talent. He was able to get two losers fired. He anonymously sent a manager a rude “gift.”

This is pretty much the same script for every job he’s had since high school. SS has been fired from his last 3 jobs and it’s never been his fault.

I don’t hear much, but what I do hear is alarming. DH asks if SS is ok financially if something happens to this job. (Taking bets—how long will SS keep this job? Will he make it a year?) I will say that SS never asks for money and the one time DH offered anything substantial he had incorrectly assumed that we’d cover it from our joint household money. Lesson learned there, I hope, big guy.

Their convo goes on … and on … At some point DH asked about SD. Time for some serious laps and lots of splashing so I heard nothing. Other than a piece of something about SD being abandoned when she went to college. (That’s when DH and I started dating—surely no correlation,right?)

I finish up, jump in the shower. All DH says to me later about the call is “That boy is so darn smart. Really insightful.”  Where the hell that came from I don’t know. It’s possible I’ll hear bits and pieces over the next day or two. Hopefully I won’t though.

Usually I can let this nonsense go pretty easily. But I’m struggling with this one, starting with DH forgetting about me. I’m working on it.