Her husband almost never emptied the dishwasher, and when it so happened that he did, he’d make several hints ascending in blatancy in order to receive accolades for his heroic, philanthropic act. She was tired of it, and decided to play a game of chicken. She would not empty the dishwasher, leave all the dirty dishes in the sink, and not say anything about it.
On day two he realized what she was doing and understood why, but he decided he was also not going to do anything or say anything.
Day three the dishes were piling up above the level of the counter that contained the sink. Clean dishes were becoming sparse so they started using tupperware containers. She now knew that he knew what she was doing, but they both refused to acknowledge the situation.
Once all the clean dishes and tupperware containers were used up on day 5, they started going out to eat. Breakfast lunch and dinner. They pretended nothing was wrong.
On day seven, after their eighth consecutive restaurant meal, she said she was going on a trip the next morning to spend some time with a friend she hadn’t seen in a few years. He said he hoped she had a good time, and to tell her friend he said hi. (She never ended up telling her friend that her husband told her to tell her he said hi.)
As soon as she left, he packed a suitcase and went to a motel. It was a trucker motel. Cheap everything, very shitty. And lots of prostitutes, it turns out. He indulged. On the third night at the motel, after he had liaised with the most recent hooker and she was lingering for some unknown reason, she moved his empty to-go containers from the desk to the trash, unprompted. She was not much to look at (to put it very nicely), but the man was turned on by her cleanup act and asked if she wanted to be his woman. After negotiating finances she agreed. They left the next day.
The man never went home and never spoke to his wife again. The last thing he said to her was, “Have fun” before her trip. He rarely wondered what she was up to. They never legally divorced. She never returned to their house either, and only thought of him once every few days or so in passing.
When the town finally condemned and sold their house, the cleanup crew marveled at the pile of dirty dishes rising out of the sink. “God damn,” they said.
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