My Wife’s Scoring Sheet

When I saw its contents, I honestly thought that it was the account book that my soon to be ex-wife, Miranda Miller, used for bookkeeping.

We were really poor when we first got together. So, we had to be careful with every penny we spent. Miranda recorded all of our expenses and income in a book. She even used a black pen for credit, and red for debit.

She said that it would make it easy for us to work hard to reach our daily goals.

This was a good idea when we were poor. But Miranda continued to record our expenses even after we became rich.

On a separate sheet, she would list the things that I did for her. In the beginning, I would only do a few things that got me demerits. The reasons for them would also be jokes.

I received one demerit when I did not open a jar for her. But she later scratched it out with a black pen and changed it to 0.5. When I did not take my breakfast, I had two points deducted. When other women flirted with me, I had another two points deducted.

However, she would give me an overwhelming number of points for being a good partner.

When I was on time for my university lectures, I got ten points. When I took the trash out while we lived together, I got twenty points. It was as if no matter what I did, I would receive points.

Unfortunately, a year ago, my demerits began to increase.

Around this time last year, Miranda made two entries.

[Henry wants to record our expenses together: +20]

This was after she came home following our lunch break.

[Henry claimed to have overtime, but he actually went to a bar: -3]

This was the next day. It was her first time deducting so many points on this sheet.

That day, she came by the company to give me lunch and tell me that she had bought new stuff for our home. While she spoke, she started writing in the book. Seeing this, my new assistant, Kiara Howard, chuckled. She said that Miranda reminded her of her grandmother.

“She loves to record her expenses too. She even writes down vegetables that cost less than a dollar. According to my mom, my grandmother was poor when she was young. So, she doesn’t know how to enjoy her wealth now that she’s older. I find it funny that the poor thing is so pedantic.”

I smiled because I found the story cute and heartwarming. However, Miranda’s expression changed.

She sneered. “Ms. Howard, you must live a life where you want for nothing, so much so that you think bookkeeping is a poor and pedantic act.”

Kiara’s face turned red, and she observed our expressions tentatively.

I frowned at Miranda. I could not understand why she would suddenly snap.

Kiara bit her lip and hesitantly said, “I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant. It’s just been a long time since I’ve seen my grandmother. I miss her…”

“Is that so? Why don’t I ask Henry to give you a few days off? That way you can visit your grandmother.” Miranda turned to me, as though she was waiting for me to say something. When I looked at Kiara, I saw that she was so terrified that she was flustered.

I cleared my throat and asked her to leave. As soon as she closed the door, I heard Miranda sneer again.

“Heh. What’s with the innocent act? She was indirectly insulting her own grandmother. How disgusting.”

Frowning, I took the book and pen from her hands.

“Stop recording this stuff,” I said. “Kiara’s right. We’re rich now, and we don’t need to live like before.”

It made us seem cheap when others saw us acting like this.

“What do you mean?” Miranda scowled. I realized belatedly that I sounded harsh, so I tried to salvage the situation.

“Besides, you’ll be tired if you keep writing. Why don’t you download a bookkeeping app instead? I can use it together with you.”

Miranda stopped scowling and mumbled, “That’s more like it.”

Then, she put her head on my arm and started acting cute. “Why don’t you come home earlier today to keep me company? You’ve been working overtime for days.”

I humored her by saying yes. But once Miranda left happily with the lunch box, I remembered that my friend was opening up his bar for business today. I had promised him that I would go and support him.