Reversals Ch. 03

She arched her eyebrows at him, surprised that he wanted to raise the stakes, but pleased at the same time that he still had fight left in him. Regardless, she was determined to win and she knew she held all the cards, literally. "You know, that's a really good point Eric. I'll be needing your credit cards, and your ATM card, and whatever cash you have in your wallet," she said, holding her palm out. "If you want to play games with me I'll simply cut you off and leave you penniless. You can give me everything - right now," she said, a firm determination in her voice.

Eric had a sudden sense that his world was crumbling around him, that months of gaming, inaction and regret had finally caught up with him to tear his world asunder. "You can't be serious Juls, please" Eric whined.

"I'm totally serious, all your cards and cash. Now!"

Eric looked frozen, shock carved into his face, the fight draining out of him completely as reality began to sink in. He couldn't win this fight with her. He didn't honestly have anything to fight with.

"If I have to I'll call-in and report them all stolen, have them cancelled. They'll be useless and you won't get replacements. They'll confiscate them if you try to use them, maybe call the police. Your choice," she said with a grin.

Eric slackened, his shoulders sank, his gaze dropped to the floor, preferring to stare at her feet rather than look her in the eyes. The facade, in his mind, that he was somehow her equal crumbled. "Please Juls, don't do this," he pleaded, with as calm a voice as he could muster.

She regarded her defeated husband with a smirk. "If you agree right now that you deserve to be punished then I'll reconsider cutting you off financially," a thrill ran through Julia as she said it. This was what power felt like.

"Okay... I... I agree," he said softly, keeping his eyes fixed on her feet.

She looked at Eric with a sense of triumph, scorn and pity. She'd won. He'd surrendered. It was that simple. Part of her wanted to grant him some sympathy at that point but as she looked at her vulnerable, defeated spouse she wanted to penalize him for being as weak as he was too. "That's not enough now. I want to hear the words. Tell me that you deserve to be punished," she said.

Eric recoiled inside. He knew he should walk away. What self-respecting man would say such words? But he wasn't willing to risk losing everything with Julia. Nothing else he'd tried had worked.

"Okay, yes, you're right Julia. I deserve to be punished for disrespecting you by playing computer games while you were working and for drinking during the day and for not finding a job after all this time! I deserve to be punished!" Eric spat out, wrenching it from deep frustrations he felt within, his face burning at the shame of it, of being forced to speak the words by his wife.

Julia smiled with satisfaction. She almost felt guilty at making Eric grovel but a stronger person, a better husband, wouldn't be in his situation, she reasoned. Maybe it would teach him something. Besides, there was something thrilling about it all. Samantha had been right, Julia had the power in their marriage. She'd had it for a long time. She'd just needed to learn how to use it. Walking up to Eric, she gave him a patronizing kiss on the cheek, rewarding him for finally giving in to her. "I'm glad you finally accepted the truth," Julia said matter-of-factly. "Now, I'd be interested in what you consider a fair punishment."

Eric stood there further humiliated by his wife's brash demand. What would Julia consider reasonable punishment? His mind reeled as he tried to piece it together. "Okay, I'm thinking that maybe I should try to balance things out. Playing while you're working? Maybe I can reverse that? Let you play while I work? Or maybe take some of your work off your plate? Do stuff you normally do and give you free time back?" Eric looked at Julia who still seemed to be listening and waiting. "I can take on some additional work around the apartment, do all the dusting and vacuuming on the weekends for awhile. Maybe all the housework for awhile. That would give you more free time on the weekend, give you some time back."

Julia looked at him questioningly. "For how long?"

"I don't know. Whatever you think is fair. Maybe, a month. How's that?" he asked.

Julia nodded subtly, seeming to approve, rolling something over in her head. "Make it three months. All the housework. And you can do my laundry too."

Eric took a deep breath and opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, then, just a suddenly, replaced it with a curious, puzzled look as he searched Julia's face, as if he hoped she'd reconsider.

"I'm serious," Julia said. "Don't worry, I'll show you what needs to be washed in the delicate cycle and what needs to be hand-washed, all those little details. You'll be fine. You might even find you like washing some of my more delicate things." Julia smiled at him, then suddenly smacked him on the ass once, hard, making him flinch. "Now finish the dishes," she commanded.

"Okay Juls," he said with a weak smile as he turned back to the sink.

"Ya know what? All this arguing is exhausting. I think I need some time to clear my head. I'm going to go out for a little shopping therapy," she announced as she put her heels back on. "I really need a new outfit," she said with a smile. Julia walked over to Eric, standing just slightly taller than him in her pumps, and gave him a quick peck on the cheek while he rinsed a plate in the sink. "Don't bother waiting on me for dinner tonight. I'm going to see if Samantha is free, maybe meet her someplace for a nibble. I think we still have leftovers you can eat from last night."

She walked off to leave and stopped at the entryway. Eric heard the paper sack he'd left at the door earlier rustling. The hairs on the back of his neck rose as he heard Julia walking back towards the kitchen. Then the paper sack was dropped onto their small kitchen table. He kept his face in the sink, pretending she wasn't there, hoping she'd just leave.

"Don't you dare ignore me!" Julia shouted.

Eric turned around quickly to face her, the plate still in his hands. "I'm sorry Juls," he said.

"From now on, you don't buy beer without asking me first!" she said. "You got it?!"

Eric nodded in agrement.

"And no more than a couple of these tonight," she added. "I don't want to come home and find you drunk."

Eric nodded. "I really am sorry you came home to all these problems, Juls," he said, hoping to gain a little sympathy from her before she went out.

"Coming home early to all of this..." she just shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, didn't you say you came home early to share something with me?" Eric asked.

Julia considered Eric's situation and how much she'd exercised power over him that afternoon. His life had taken a dramatic, and sudden, turn. She even planned to have him start hand washing her panties soon. He'd fallen so far in such a short time. He seemed fragile. If she pushed him too hard, or too fast he might break somehow. Telling him that she was getting a promotion and a raise while he was still out of work might totally crush his ego, reduce him to ash.

"The company had a good quarter so they decided to give everybody in sales a small bonus, enough for a nice meal somewhere," she lied. "If you play your cards right, maybe I'll wear that little black dress you like so much on me and we'll go to a fancy restaurant downtown."

"I'd like that," he said.

"Good," she said simply, then turned on her heels and walked away, preparing to leave again. Eric took several quick steps forward to get out of the kitchen to watch her go. She walked with a stimulating boldness, her skirt swaying around her thighs as she moved, her heels clicking on the tiles as she walked out the door. Julia was so damn hot in her short skirts and heels, almost hypnotically so. He didn't want to lose her he reminded himself. A girl as exciting as Julia didn't come along every day, and much less often if you were more on the nerdy side like Eric was.

He sighed heavily, savoring the image of Julia in his mind, and walked back to the sink to continue working on the dishes. If he wasn't done with them before Julia got home he was sure he'd be in trouble. It was better to keep her happy.

*****