Episode 1197: Feels Good

“It’s almost always time consuming, no one fights anything more fiercely than kids fight sleep so yeah, I see where it could be frustrating,” Ryley continued, raising his voice to normal volume as they made their way down the hallway into the living room. “But it’s my favorite time of the day. I don’t get sick of the same stories, not when I see how happy or comforted it makes Russ and Miranda feel. Why someone would rather fill that time by scrolling on their phones or binge-watching some show, I just, this is what I look forward to when I’m annoyed at the office and it makes me feel better to know eventually I’ll get to that quiet focused time with you and the kids. Like I said, I get the complaints from parents, I do, but you’re never going to hear that from me.”

He and Adria settled on the sofa together. She leaned against him, her legs curled up underneath her, another part of this nighttime ritual he loved, his wife cozied up beside him, decompressing from the day.

“I don’t love the idea that they’re going to outgrow story-time at some point,” he admitted, then joked, “would it be wrong to purposely arrest their development and keep them kiddos forever?”

Adria laughed a little before soberly, too soberly, adding, “I’ll miss story-time when it’s over too. It’s pretty much the only time of day when I know for sure I’m a good person, I truly feel it when they look at me like I hung the moon or something.”

Ryley frowned. He gently tipped up her chin to look into his eyes. “I knew you were in some kind of mood tonight, I just couldn’t figure out what it was, still can’t, really. Why would you only feel like a good person when you’re tucking in the kids, you’re a great-”

“I don’t remember my parents tucking me in or reading to me, maybe they did, probably at some point,” Adria allowed, “but they didn’t do it often enough for me to remember it. So at least I” m better than them in that respect.”

“You’re better than them in every respect,” Ryley insisted. “Why are you so down on yourself right now? What happened today?”

“Justine. My own sister. She fired me. She thinks I’m so awful, like dad awful, so she fired me. She’s the one who’s supposed to be working for me, I’m the client, and she fired me.”

Episode 1198: All She Wrote