I Have Been Told I Hate You
I am feeling very conflicted right now. A few weeks ago, my wife was home during the day. She was tired and took a nap on the couch in the living room where our not-so-quiet children were playing. As she was falling asleep, her cell phone rang. I recognized the name and number as someone with whom she speaks frequently. I answered the phone, told the person that she was sleeping, and took a message so that she would not have to wake up.
A little while later, our home phone rang. When I answered, I realized that the person who was calling was an old friend that my wife had been trying to contact. I whispered to her that her old friend was on the phone and discretely asked if she wanted to take the call. She did not reply, so I asked again. She still didn't reply, so I started a conversation with the caller and moved to another room.
Before I got too far into the conversation, my wife came into the room. I told the caller that she was awake and asked her to hold on while I gave the phone to my wife. As I was handing the phone to her, my wife said, "I hate you." She was obviously not too happy that I had woken her up from her nap.
If it had been me trying to get in touch with an old friend, I would have wanted to be woken up if the person called. I thought that I was doing the right thing by waking her up enough to ask her if she wanted to speak with her old friend. Obviously, I did not. When she got off of the phone with her friend, she apologized for her response to being woken up.
Herein lies my conflict. Never before have I had anyone tell me that they hated me. Now, the person that promised to love me 'til death do us part tells me that she hates me because I interrupted her nap. I know that she apologized, but I am having a hard time getting over her response. I was obviously insensitive to her trying to take a nap, but if she didn't want to be disturbed, I would have thought she would nap somewhere other than where our children were playing. Also, I knew that she had been trying to get in touch with the person who was finally returning her call, so I assumed that she would want to take the call. Obviously, I was wrong.
Sometimes I feel like nothing that I do is right.
