When you're lying flat on your back dying, your family will be looking down crying, NOT your clients.

"The Hardworking Husband" is written and copyrighted by Vernelle Edwards; excerpted from "The Outsider" - a book of short stories.

Lying eclipsed everything. Thunder and rain accompanied my dreams. Suddenly, the cacophony awoke me and I instinctively reached for my husband's hard chest. Only soft, Egyptian cotton greeted my hand.

I grabbed the phone and speed dialed Brian's number.

"Hi Honey," he schmoozed. "You are psychic. I am a couple of blocks from home."

Exasperated, I reminded him: "It's 3:00 in the morning..."

"I can barely wait to see you. Let me get off this phone. The weather is bad."

"That's the least of your problems. It's like a gorilla in the room and you're complaining about the weather."

I was talking to myself. He hung up the phone.

Five minutes later, the door opened. He handed me the dozen red roses and grabbed me.

Simultaneously throwing the flowers on the floor and pulling away, I cried:

"Brian I can't do this..."

"Honey, I have to work to support you and my boys."

""When you're lying flat on your back dying, your family will be looking down, NOT your clients."

He earnestly replied:

"I would die for you and my children."

"DAMMIT! LIVE for us, Brian! We never see you. You work 7 days a week. IF you're really working. You're probably sleeping with some whore..."

"Not that again," he snapped. "How do you think I pay for this big house?"

"Sell the damn house!"

Condescendingly, he asked: "And where are we going to live if I sell the house?"

"Don't patronize me," I seethed. "We can buy a smaller house. Hell, I don't care if we live in one room as long as you're working normal hours."

"Honey, let's not do this."

Reachng into his wallet and retrieving three hundred dollar bills, he coaxed:

"Go buy a sexy dress. Get one of your friends to come over here and babysit. Tonight I'm taking my wife to a fancy restaurant."

Accepting the bills, I wondered aloud.

"Friends? I got three. Me, myself and I. Do you think I'm going to bring some woman into my house? I'll call Mrs. Thompson from church and take the boys to her house."

Laughing, Brian leaned down and kissed my large forehead. When he first met me, Brian said I looked like Sade. Of course I blushed and agreed to go out with him.

"Honey, you still make me laugh after all of these years," he assured.

Holding him tightly, I realized that no matter what or who he was doing, he would never leave me.