Joint Decision

The 28th of the month was notoriously always the same for Victor and Angel. It miraculously always turned out to be a day where Victor sat on the couch with a Sony Playstation controller in his hand while she sat at their too small dining room table orgazining and paying their monthly household bills. The routine was seconds nature to her and all too foreign to him.

Part of her wanted to complain about the division of priorities. Part of her wanted to leave it alone and avoid yet another debate on their roles.
Victor stayed focused on his Madden NFL football game for all but two occasions: snack breaks and sex. Even frequent runs to the restroom were delayed until he was finished.

She scanned through the latest bills: Comcast and their latest and so called extra special important NFL package as atop the list at close to $250.00. The more she added the more frustrated she got. The rent was already excessive and that didn’t include the heat and hot water that they needed to survive living in the always chilly South End of Boston. The parking at their condo was another $75 a month and the gas alone on his Escalade was enough to nearly push her over the edge. Outside of her getting her hair done once a month and her nails, on occasion she spent very little. He however had a live for the moment spending habit, which made it damn near impossible to cohabitate.

“Victor.” She said, deciding one last time to inquire. She figured she’d work her way up to the big conversations.
“Can we finally just get a joint account?” her voice was hushed but big enough to get over the voice of the screaming announcer who was going crazy over yet another touchdown scored by Victor’s opponent online.

“What’s the need for a joint account, babes?” he said, never looking in her direction.
“Well, for one, it would save me the trouble of having to transfer money from account to account every month so that we get the bills paid in time.” She laid out her pre thought reasoning.
“It will also help us save a little bit. You know I want to get a house in the next few years or so.” She continued until she realized he never was truly focused on the conversation.
“VICTOR?!”
“Yea yea.. I heard you…. Umm.. I think everything is cool as it is, honey bunches.” His sweet talk during Madden never translated well.
“You know, ordinary people do it all the time. They cohabitate and they have a joint account as part of the cohabitation process.”
“Lucky we’re not ordinary huh, babes.” He said as he smashed the buttons on the black controller.
She sighed deeply as she chased the true root of the problem.

“It will also allow us to cut back on some of the extra fluff that we’re spending.” She said with trepidation.
She knew he would play ignorant, which he did, oh so well.

“What kind of fluff? You only get your hair done once a month. That’s not fluff babes.” He replied.
“I wasn’t talking about my hair.”
“We should be talking about your hair.” He laughed.
“Can we be serious. I spent $70 total last month on myself. $50 on my hair and $20 on my nails because we had that event. I saved everything else for our future. What did you save?”

He paused the game, now fully understanding her point.
“Ohhhh, now I see why you wanna get a joint account. It’s so you can monitor my dough. Don’t worry babes. I give you enough money to help with the bills, and everything else I keep. We don’t need to match dollar for dollar here. It’s no competition. I don’t want a joint account. End of discussion.”

“$300 on video games last month alone Victor…”
“The new Madden came out, and I needed a few new accessories.”
“A headset with the Madden logo? A custom made controller with your name burned in the back? A wristband that allows you to call augables?”
“It's called audibles.”

“I don’t care what it’s called. It’s unnecessary.” She said before she raised from the table and headed towards the bedroom for an hour of Golden Girls therapy.


Is Victor wrong? Is Angel being a nag? What’s the solution that can bring them both a bit of happiness?