My mother-in-law Mabel

Chapter 1

"She broke up with you?" My mother-in-law Mabel asked me, bewildered.

"Yes."

“You know, Mabel, what makes me so sad? I even let her sleep with Jason, my best friend.”

“Tell me.”

“I don’t remember exactly how it started, if my wife initiated it or if I suggested spicing things up. I do remember that my gut feeling warned me, but I ignored it. I normally invited him over for Saturday night, and as usual, after having a couple of beers, my wife always insisted on him staying the night because of the drinking.”

“Did he drink a lot?” Mabel asked.

“Not really, perhaps one, maybe two beers, the entire evening. I always thought my wife was over-cautious with DUIs because normally he would drink Coke Zero. But she insisted, and I knew better than to argue against it.“

“Plus, the evenings together were very short, both of them always tired real quick and retreating to their respective bedrooms. I was quite the opposite, and she always made sure I had enough hard liquor. Most of the time, I would crash out and fall asleep on the living room couch until noon.“

“So, Jason spent a lot of weekends at your place?”

“Well, he was already spending one or two weekends a month at our place as we were still engaged, but after our honeymoon, it changed, and he was always there at the weekends.”

“Did it influence your relationship?”

“Not really. The only effect was that my wife was always tired the next day, and it often appeared as if she had run a marathon. I once observed her having troubles walking around at breakfast, and as I asked her about it, she said something like, "It is lovely to be well done for on Sundays.”

“I just didn’t understand what she meant with that, but the fact is, she couldn’t even properly sit down and always needed an extra pillow for her seat at Sunday breakfast.”

“Oh, by the way, this issue also happened during our honeymoon, but not one day a week; it was more a permanent thing, having troubles each morning.”

“Where did you guys spend your honeymoon?”

“Well, Jason suggested a Caribbean cruise, and my wife loved the idea right away. So, we did.”

“Let me guess," my mother-in-law replied. “Jason was on board as well?”

“Yes!” I almost shouted, surprised how she'd know that.