She woke up in the morning swearing that she had heard something moving in the ducts in the dead of night.
She was far from a liar, but the mere fact that she had a flair for the dramatics meant he might have been exaggerating the facts a little.
As most people called her, Billie Jean was unfortunate enough to have me for a husband. Our natures were utterly different, but as they say, opposites attract. She wore nylons and stilettos to go and get the mail or the newspaper. She made her meals from scratch, but we would order take-out on occasions. Heaven forbid if you commented on how great the pizza was, you were supposed to stare at it with distaste and point out how you missed a homemade pizza. Pleasing Billie Jean meant that you had to leave her to her own devices on matters such as choosing the local service provider that offered quality ac service. She ensured that we had the best a/c care program because anything short of the best was unacceptable. We bought an air purifier, but Billie Jean later learned the advantages of an indoor air cleaning system to the air quality, and that is how we ended up calling the HVAC technician a second time within the same month. HVAC maintenance twice a year, and even the air conditioning expert knew better than to keep Billie Jean waiting when she called for a/c care. After the night’s incident, Billie Jean was on the phone making arrangements for ductwork cleaning because no vermin would live under her roof rent-free. She knew more about HVAC than most homeowners, and no one replaced the ac filter apart from her. The air conditioning install was always in tip-top shape.