By their second anniversary, Tom and Rachel had discovered that the real challenge of marriage wasn’t the big stuff — it was the endless small negotiations that ate away at the joy.
They’d both been running on fumes. Tom’s job had him working late, and Rachel’s new role at a charity meant she was constantly juggling meetings, emails, and the emotional weight of other people’s problems.
Weekends were supposed to be their sanctuary. But lately, Saturdays had turned into a chore marathon where neither felt heard.
The Saturday Showdown
This Saturday was no different. Rachel had planned for them to visit her parents, who lived an hour away. Tom had quietly hoped for a day in the garden, tackling the weeds that were staging a coup.
“We should go see Mum and Dad,” Rachel said, already checking train times.
“I thought we were going to get the garden sorted,” Tom replied, reaching for his coffee.
“You always put it off.”
“You always spring plans on me.”
The tone shifted quickly — clipped, defensive, a dance they’d done too many times.
By the third round, the air in the kitchen felt heavy. Rachel sat back, lips pressed thin. Tom stared into his mug, feeling the day slipping away into another petty standoff.
When Words Aren’t Working
They’d been here before. Words would tumble out, each one digging the trench deeper. And at the end, both would be exhausted, still annoyed, still feeling unheard.
Tom felt that creeping hopelessness — the kind where you wonder if you’re in a loop you can’t escape.
That’s when his eyes landed on the corner shelf, where a slim paperback stuck out like it had been waiting for this exact moment.
The Unexpected Peace Offering
Without saying anything, Tom got up, walked to the shelf, and returned with it in hand. He slid it across the table to Rachel like a secret document in a spy movie.
She glanced down:
“How to Keep Your Wife Happy (Step 1: Just Agree)”
She looked up at him, one eyebrow raised. “Really?”
Tom shrugged. “Figured I’d skip the argument and take the advice.”
The Mood Breaks
Rachel opened it. Page after page of glorious nothing. She laughed — an unguarded, surprised laugh that cracked the tension in two.
“That’s… actually perfect,” she said, shaking her head. “And depressingly accurate.”
She grabbed a pen and wrote on the first page:
Lesson 1: Go see my parents, then fix the garden.
Tom grinned. “I’ll take it. As long as Lesson 2 is ‘Don’t buy more plants than we can carry.’”
The Rest of the Day
They made the trip, listening to old songs in the car, singing badly and laughing when they got the lyrics wrong. On the way back, they stopped at a garden centre “just to look” and left with three bags of compost and a lemon tree.
That night, the book sat open on the coffee table, Lesson 1 staring up at them. It was still blank except for that single line — and somehow, that one line felt like a turning point.
The Moral
Sometimes, keeping your wife happy isn’t about flowers or grand gestures. Sometimes it’s about knowing when to stop digging your heels in and just agree… with a smile, a joke, and a blank book.