I gently allowed the door to click softly closed behind me and then allowed myself to rest against it. I was exhausted from work and from the drive home in rush hour traffic. You would never think that sitting still for hours would be so draining but now I just wanted to melt into the hideous beige carpet. I knew Tim would still be home but he didn't come to find me. He was probably hiding somewhere and I didn't blame him. Even I was a little frightened of myself when I was pissed off. And I was pissed off.

It had taken me longer than I anticipated to reach the university that morning and consequently I was late for the third morning in a row. I spent the entire first hour with students judging my rumpled appearance and exhausted demeanor and sniggering at the thought of what had given me such a late night.

A few then whined to met that they had wanted their papers back for the weekend break and it took a lot of my resolve not to simply sit down on the floor and cry with exhaustion. In that moment I didn't believe I could loathe Tim any more than what I did and all the reasons why sprang to mind. Even the ones that didn't really bother me at all. I just needed to hate him for a while.

Sliding my jacket off I threw it vaguely in the direction of the coat hook and headed straight to my office to pour myself a drink, noticing with a pang of hatred that the papers were stacked neatly in the center of my desk. I leant against the counter to take a swig of alcohol, hoping it would calm my thrumming heart and my anger.

He would probably tell me that they were there all along and that I should look more with my eyes and less with my mouth. I went over to them and saw a note sitting on top of them.

'They were on the floor next to the sofa from where you had been marking them x'

I stared at it for a moment and only became angrier that now I had no reason to be angry. I jumped when I heard the bathroom door open and Tim saunter into the room, clean shaven and in the deep purple shirt. My heart started thrumming all over again.

He gave a cheeky grin when he saw me.

"Get ready, I'm taking you out for dinner."