Even though she was able to feel happy at the bar, she felt just as bad as she ever did at home. The negative numbers from Duke kept getting worse and worse in her notebook. How long would it be before they were broke? She was looking at her notebook and feeling embarassed about the night before in bed when she had a thought.
She was going to refuse to go to the bar. Not only that, but she was going to confront Duke. The money was rightfully hers, too, and it was only hurting the both of them for him to spend it on drinking so much. Just because she was his wife didn't mean she had to sit back and watch.
She ran the store normally that day. Jack came in and bought nine bottles of grape juice, stuffing eight into his rucksack and carrying one high over his head. She always wondered why he did that. The day seemed to go by dreadfully slowly as she waited for her husband to come in from work. She looked over her notebook what seemed like a million times, hoping that something would happen -- a customer, a typhoon, anything.
He came home, same time as always.
"Well, let's go out." He smiled at her, "Grab a little extra money just in case."
Manna bit her lower lip and took a deep breath. She stared at the counter that she hadn't left for the entire day. She closed her eyes and prepared herself. It seemed a lot harder to say it now than it seemed when she thought it up earlier. Duke folded his arms in front of himself and gave her a strange look. She didn't notice.
"What are you doing?" He questioned.
"No."
Duke paused for a bit, still confused.
"What?"
"No." Manna looked up at him, her face mixed with both confidence and fear, "You're not taking any more money."
"What do you mean? It's my m-"
"It's my money, too." Her voice was stern, "I work here every day. When we first married you said it was both of ours."
"Then it's part mine, and I can spend it how I want."
"I can protect it how I want, then, too. You can't keep doing this. It's hurting us both. We're going into debt with Doug and Jeff -- who knows who will be next. You keep taking more and more money for drinking. You don't pay attention to me anymore, all you seem to care about is money and getting drunk. What about me? What about Aja?" Her voice started to crackle at the end as she started to lose her confidence, but she refused to cry this time.
"Aja?" Duke snarled, "What does this have to do with Aja? What are you complaining about this time?"
Manna pressed her lips together and shut her eyes. She wouldn't cry. She had to stop this.
She opened her eyes and started to speak, but saw Duke's back in the doorway.
"Can you do anything other than nag?"
The door closed and Manna fell to her knees. She didn't have to hold back crying for right now.