All Work...

‘Are you kidding me?!’ Sophie said as her apologetic husband rang home from work to sheepishly say he’d be home late from work. Again. For the third time this week! It was only Wednesday. He, though, was doing it for her. Doing it for them. For the family they wanted to have. Stretching himself like never before. Intellectually. Emotionally. Physically. Straining with every sinew.

She knew it too. Deep down. His words, though were now of little consolation. All that she wanted was to be held. Physically consoled through the lingering winter nights. All around her said that spring was coming, but she did not feel the sense of dawn that this offered.

She wanted to feel that new beginning for them both. She wanted that family now. There would be no perfect time after all. If only she could just persuade him. If only he’d come home from work early enough to make things actually happen! Instead, he would just slump into bed after an abrupt evening meal. Was his sacrifice worth it?

Surely there was more to life than this? Something would have to give…

It wasn’t long before Sophie got her wish.

Peter was born as a result of a tempestuous night of passion where these differences were resolved and these colliding visions met. Their new life had started in earnest. Slowly but surely a balance was reached and the apologetic phone calls from work late at night ceased. A husband had become a father and a newlywed couple a family.


Word Count: 254
Written for: "Daily Flash Fiction Challenge" 
Prompt: Are you kidding me?