In couples therapy round two, he tells her he’d wanted to collaborate with her. That he wishes she’d have collaborated on the kitchen more. That he collaborated on the windows with the client in the client’s house. The client’s house has views of the river from the windows they collaborated on so the wife isn’t sure why he hasn’t fucking moved in there already. Maybe he has.
Is there more than one way to restore a window? Did the client suggest this type of wood over that? Did she suggest paint colors, stain colors in some way that was preferable, more invested, sexier than the way the wife considered paint colors? Did she help with cutting the wood, with sanding it smooth, replacing the glass, or the weights, or whatever the special word is for the weights? She probably memorized the word for the weights, is that what he wants? Did she help him put the restored window into the frame? Chop down the tree and cut the wood into two-by-fours? Just sit there admiring him and his work, bringing him gourmet meals she made, until it was time to fuck? Is that what we’re really talking about?
The wife has collaborated before. She has collaborated with the husband and she has collaborated with others. She knows what collaboration means. She wants to know why collaboration is preferable to approval, to support, to faith in the work that the husband does. She wants to know when this became an issue. Did they not collaborate on everything? What is a good marriage if not a collaborative effort? Remember when they made those embroideries, the ones he drew and she stitched? She even chose the colors. They showed them in galleries and they even sold quite a few of them. They talked about doing more. She got the fabric out for him to draw on. It didn’t get drawn on.