I missed a bill.

I had the money. It was in the calendar — every device, every platform, no excuse. And I still missed it and had to pay the late fee and I lost my shit about it while my wife quietly got dressed and went for her walk.

This one is about what happened between the moment she left and the moment she came back.

I've spent decades living on the financial edge with Sharon. Paycheck to paycheck, the kind of edge where an unexpected bill doesn't just cost you money — it activates something old and ugly that has nothing to do with the actual dollar amount. I know this about myself. And knowing it didn't stop it from happening Saturday morning.

But here's the thing. It used to take me all day to come back from something like that. Days sometimes. And this time I laid in the bed, listened to what was actually running underneath the reaction, and by the time she walked back through that door I was ready for chocolate wafers and a streaming service.

That's not nothing.

This episode is about speed bumps. About the difference between catching yourself and beating yourself. About what it actually means to sit with the uncomfortable thing instead of talking your way around it with a bunch of cute words that don't do a damn thing.

Oh, and Sharon makes an appearance. She was tiptoeing. It didn't work.