Chapter 2

"Charlie? Claude? I'm home. I'm sorry, my meeting took a bit longer than expected but I brought takeout from Ha Long!", Catherine shouted while she hurried down the hallway, loaded with several grocery bags, her purse and a laptop. She made it to the kitchen just in time before one of the heavy paper bags could slip from her grasp and dropped the groceries on the counter in the middle of the room.
Usually Rosalie was responsible for the families grocery shopping but the Peruvian had called in sick this week due to a severe flu. Although Rosalie sent them her teenage daughter Ana Maria who took over most of the household chores but the girl had no driver's license and so Catherine had to drive to the store herself.
On the upper floor she could hear doors being torn open, followed by the noise of a small elephant herd while her children stormed down the stairs.

"About time, I'm starving," grumbled Claude, her 17-year-old teenage daughter and tore open the plastic bag that contained three boxes of Chinese food. She checked all boxes and chose one.
"There's meat in each of them," complained her youngest and wrinkled up his nose while he pointed accusingly at their food. His long dark hair fell into his slightly pimpled forehead and Catherine mad a mental note to arrange a much needed hair appointment for Charles.
"The last time you complained that I didn't bring duck in sweet-sour sauce," she pointed out and slipped out of her high heels. The cool granite floor was a blessing for their battered feet. "Just eat rice and vegetables." Catherine took a plate out of the cupboard and placed the declined duck on it. With a determined expression on her face she pressed the now meat-free box into her pouting child's hand as well as a set of chopsticks.
"Great, I bet it still tastes like meat," he grumbled, but grabbed the food and a coke from the fridge and fled back to his room.

Gazing after him, both women shook their heads in amazement. Before the older one could ask, Claude already preempted with an explanation.
"He saw a video about livestock farming on Youtube and decided to live vegan from now on." Catherine raised an eyebrow and opened her own food box.
"Did he watch this video today? Because this morning he wolfed down a large portion of omelet with cheese." She broke the wooden chopsticks in half, seized a piece of chicken and put it in her mouth.
"Nobody ever said that vegans are intelligent," her daughter explained with a smug grin. "I'll eat upstairs as well. Thanks Mum."
"Just go ahead, child. Family meals are completely overrated," Catherine called after her and sighed. Basically she shouldn't even wonder about her children's behavior. They were left to themselves far too often and truth be told, she could not even remember the last meal they had together – as a family.

She devoured her food right on the spot as she had missed out her lunch break and felt like dying of hunger. Just as she had finished her last bite and poured herself a glass of red wine the front door opened.
So Henry condescend to actually come home this evening. Soon after her husband appeared in the kitchen.
"That smells delicious", he said and approached the counter to inspect her groceries. "Where is my food?", he asked a few seconds later with an irritated look.
"At Ha Long's, I suppose," she informed him while throwing her empty food container into the bin. She couldn't suppress a sense of malicious glee when she turned to look at Henry.
"How very considerate of you," her husband snarled and reached past her to pour himself a glass of wine.

His hot breath brushed against her cheek, causing the fine hair on the base of her neck to rise in awareness. Catherine turned her head.
"How should I predict if my husband intends to spend the night at home in his own bed or with one of his numerous sluts?" Even though she tried to sound more amused than hurt, a feeling of offence still clung to her voice.
"Since you're going to such great length to make my home a place of comfortableness with your warmth and love, isn't that so, Catherine?"
Henry's words too were meant to hurt but Catherine merely rolled with her eyes. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of showing him how close his hostility got at her.
"Eat this, your son is a vegan now." Carelessly she slammed the plate with the despised duck on the counter, grabbed her wine and went into the adjoining living room. "You can make yourself useful and put away the purchases."
"We have a housekeeper for that!" He shouted after her.

"Do you have any idea what's going on in this househould? Rosalie's been sick since last friday, Henry. But please, don't feel compelled to lift a finger. Ana Maria can put the food away tomorrow. At least the things that won't be spoiled by then, "she shouted and dropped herself on the sofa. Feeling exhausted and bone-tired, Catherine pressed her fingers against her aching temples and massaged them with slight pressure.
"And why didn't you put the stuff away since you're the one who bought them in the first place?" His outrageous question elicited an irritabled growl from deep inside her throat.
"Here you are! Because I already went to the grocery store, Henry!" she snapped furiously, unwilling to give in on this matter even for one millimeter. "How comes I have to do everything myself?"

His wife didn't even waste her breath with a response. She simply didn't have any patience left for useless things today. He ought to do whatever he wanted. As always. She couldn't care less. Catherine turned on the TV and dismissively started to channel surf. But nothing could keep her attention for long.
There was some rumbling noise coming from the kitchen, accompanied by Henry's cursing.
"There you go," she murmured tiredly and let her head fall against the soft cushion of the couch. Suddenly every fiber of her body felt incredibly heavy and a chill captured her body. Using her smartphone she increased the room temperature by three degrees and spread a woolen blanket over her shivering body. Then she closed her eyes. At this moment she even lacked the energy to arise and go upstairs to get into her comfy bed.

Catherine startled awake when the volume of the television was suddenly turned up to an almost unbearable level.
"What's up?", her words lacked her usual severity.
"The Seahawks are on tonight. If you want to sleep, go upstairs," grumbled Henry. He had made himself at home on the other end of the couch. The remote control he had obviously wrenched from her grip was now resting in his hand.
"You can watch your game upstairs. In case you haven't noticed, I was... ", before she could finish her sentence, Henry interrupted her brusquely.

"You were asleep, Catherine." Shaking her head she leaned over to her husband and reached for the remote control.
Henry however did not give up without a fight and violently tugged at the piece of plastic so his wife lost her balance and slammed against his chest all of a sudden.
"Damn it, Henry," she cursed and rubbed her shoulder. "We have agreed that the one who's first in is also the one who gets to watch on the big screen. Now stop behaving like a spoiled child and hand over the remote control!" She tried to stare her husband down with steely determination.
"But the Seahawks are playing and you don't even want to watch anything special. You were sleeping when I walked in. You can do that upstairs, far better I would like to add."
"Now I'm awake and I want to watch TV, "she said defiantly and wrenched the remote control from his hand, not without giving him a nasty glare. Then she reduced the volume once again and switched to another channel. To provoke him she remained stuck at a lame romantic comedy. Unsurprisingly Henry groaned and run hin hands over his bald head and his stubby face in frustration.

"You don't even want to watch this shitty romance," he wailed. "You hate these kind of movies."
"Believe me, Darling, tonight I love them. For the simple reason that it upsets you. How about you? Wanna join me or do you want to see your game upstairs?" She knew that she was tormenting him mercylessly but they had their agreement he had stick to. Even more since it was him who came up with this stupid idea. A self-satisfied smile spread on her lips. If necessary she would spend the whole night watching shallow films. As long as Henry didn't get his will. She was more than willing to bring this special kind of sacrifice.
"Great, you won. Have fun, Catherine!" Henry snapped and darted a wicked glare at her whereupon her grin even broaded.
"Goodnight, Henry," she purred.

OMG - I can't believe you guys actually wrote 9 reviews for the first chapter. That's amazing. Thank you very very much. Well, it actually puts some kind of pressure on me but I work best while under pressure. :-)

at guest user: Yes, they are CEOs, but I tend to search for synonyms to avoid repetition and in the company I'm with we also address our CEO as manager or director as well.