Agreement with the Enemy - Winter in Summer (17.)

He liked to ride his bike. Mostly from pub to pub. A little estate tour. I didn't even mind it anymore. As long as he wasn't at home. I tried not to be provocative and do my own thing. There was nothing else to do anyway.

He was a firm believer in the theory that it's cold in the winter and warm in the summer. Regardless of the weather. On the first day of spring he put on shorts and on the last day of fall he put them away. Some guys are just like that. I think it's a little weird, maybe a bit of a farce, but as long as they're not bothering anybody else, they're free to freeze. Right. "How can you be cold in the summer?" he used to drive me crazy. Especially at the turn of the season. His high blood pressure never matched my low blood pressure.

On the other hand, I had a friend who had an even more brutal theory. He explained to me, quite seriously, that in order to be warm in his sleeping bag at night, he had to be cold all day. Fortunately, I didn't share a household with him. I would have had to be taken out of the sleeping bag with a pestle and mortar after putting this nonsense into practice.

It was a beautiful Indian summer. The weather beckoned for a romantic drive. So he obeyed the voice of nature and set off. Shorts, T-shirts, bikes, and off into the world. The sun was shining pleasantly, thirst was as ever eternal, so he didn't arrive home until the early hours of the morning.

All blue, gnashing his teeth, even though it was only mid-autumn. Either his own theory had betrayed him, or the creature was the exception that proved the rule. I don't know. Either way, he wasn't looking his best. He was waddling like a dear dog and looking rather used and scruffy. I looked at him with undisguised amusement.

"What happened?" I asked. To keep the speech from standing.
"Well? I was driving away from Kyja Pond, and fatigue came over me, so I took a nap in the grass. Well."

Then he took a full bath of hot water, soaked himself in it, and fell blissfully asleep. A mischievous thought occurred to me. I fought with myself for a while, but in the end, the desire to shake him a little won out. I crept quietly into the bathroom, very carefully moved the shower head under the surface, and slowly turned on the cold water. Yes, I did. I'm ashamed. But not too much. I'll freely admit that.

It took a while to wake up. The water was completely cold. The bath didn't help him much. If I hadn't confessed, he probably wouldn't have suspected that I'd...? Fortunately, he took the joke. He did. There were moments of relief. Especially when he needed something.
Fortunately, it was quite often.

15. Sorry. Sometimes, you annoyed me with your dude-ness and superiority. I know it was necessary. There were still a lot of things I didn't want to see or hear. There were a lot of things I already understood, but I refused to address them. At least inside my head. I didn't think I could do it alone. I didn't believe myself, but I believed your promises about how everything would be different. All I could manage, though, were these little pranks that lightened the situation a bit and managed to make me forget for a while. Fortunately, we had a similar sense of humor. And so we dabbled in it, waiting for a miracle. Maybe both of us.

The constant groping and butt-slapping got more and more annoying. I begged him not to do it, but it was pointless. He was on top of things and certainly didn't admit to doing anything wrong. The relationship between us was already pretty strained at that point.

Let it go. She'll clean it up.