IT – Minor annoyance challenge response
In the Great Scheme of Things it hardly mattered. It was only a minor annoyance, really. Something he could - really should - ignore. At least if he had any sense. It surely wasn't worth getting her all worked up about, and if he mentioned it, he was positive she'd get all huffy about it. So he tried, as best as he could, to pretend it wasn't happening. Every day. Every single morning. Without fail. Did he do it to her? Never! Not one time, even! He'd even given little, tiny hints as to how much it irritated him. But for someone as smart as his wife, when it came to this, she was as dense as a duracrete block.
He tried moving to different places, trying to position himself away from his wife, so she couldn't annoy him by doing it. But she just altered her position and still did it. IT WAS SO ANNOYING! But was it worth an argument? Was it worth getting a cold shoulder for who knows how long? Was it worth sleeping on the sofa until he apologized, even though HE didn't do IT to her?
And so he endured. Morning after morning. Week after week. Sometimes he could feel his hands start to tremble, his breath get short, his vision become unfocused. He wanted just to thrust it in her hands and say, take it already! Just give it back when you're done with it!
But that would be allowing her to win. And this was war now. The principle of the thing. Of course, she had no idea how incredibly ANGRY this made her husband. For someone with supposedly such acute abilities to judge such things, he'd wondered that maybe, just maybe, she knew IT made him LIVID!
And so, once again, this early morning she approached him from behind, intent again on having her way. And once again, he could feel his blood pressure start to shoot up. He felt her long hair dropping forward, tickling the back of his neck, her eyes boring past his skull.
After a few seconds, he tentatively tried to turn it, but she stopped him. "Wait, Han. I'm not done reading this article yet."
"Do you just want to take it?" Han asked through clenched teeth. "I can read it later."
"No, no... I don't want to interrupt you," she said distractedly, her eyes still reading the morning news flimsy. "Just let me finish this one thing."
Sighing, Han sat back, forced to hold the flimsy in place and wait for Leia to finish commenting on whatever she happened to be reading. A minute later, she nodded. "You can turn the page now. I'm through with it."
Han was tempted to say, So am I, throw the news flimsy down and stalk off in anger. But it just wasn't worth the argument. So he obediently turned the page and silently fumed while she continued reading IT over his shoulder.
THE END