I arrive home late after a long and arduous day at the end of a long and arduous working week.
I slump on the sofa for half an hour waiting for the brain’s energy system to regain some of its charge.
The Loved One slumps on the other sofa. Her arm is mending quite well, 65 days after her fall, but she still has a lot of pain.
I have been moving some very heavy objects up gradients and over resistant surfaces, and so I have a few aches and pains of my own.
Eventually I make some tea. Earl Grey for the Loved One. English Breakfast for myself.
We take a few deeply comforting sips on our respective sofas but then I go to the kitchen and return with a bottle of very good Spanish brandy and I pour in a generous quantity to top up my tea.
The Loved One looks at me knowingly and reminds me in a very level tone that as a matter of fact the bottle is hers … I had offered it to her as a gift when I returned from my last but one trip to Spain … skint.
In turn, not wishing to lose face entirely, I cheerfully suggest that she should look on this action as one which amounts to my doing her a favour. The bottle is currently too heavy for her injured arm and I am hastening the time when she will once again be able to help herself.