‘Honey?’ I called out absently into the house. ‘Sam, are you around?’
‘Yeah?’ she called back, voice coming from the bedroom.
‘Can you come here a minute?’
‘Why can’t you come here?’
‘Because I’m watching the telly,’ I said, briefly flicking up the volume for emphasis.
‘So?’
‘So I don’t want to miss anything!’
‘Well, I’m reading in bed,’ she said. ‘So if you want something, it better be important enough to get me out from under these covers.’
‘It is,’ I said. ‘It is, I promise.’
I heard the muffled thumping of the blankets being shifted, and the unmistakable bass note of my wife grumbling to herself. After a second, she appeared behind me in the living room.
‘What?’ she asked, frowning.
‘Would you be able to flick the heating on?’ I asked her. ‘It’s getting quite chilly in here.’
She blinked at me slowly for what felt like a full minute. ‘Excuse me?’
‘The heating,’ I said, gesturing at the thermostat set into the wall. ‘God, do you remember how cold this house used to get before we found someone to repair a heater near Canberra? Genuine lifesaver.’
‘You got me to get up out of my comfortable bed so I could turn on the thermostat that you can almost reach from the couch?!’
I frowned at her, confused.
‘I told you, I’m watching something I don’t want to miss.’
‘It’s the commercials!’
‘Which is why we’re having this conversation now,’ I rolled my eyes. ‘Would you just…’
I gestured at the heating control unit. She smiled thinly and turned to adjust it.
‘Enjoy,’ she said, icily.
‘Thanks!’
‘Oh, but just so you remember,’ she said from the doorway, ‘that person who came and fixed our heater? They also specialised in air conditioning repairs around Canberra too…’
Laughing, she left the room, and I frowned at what she meant.
After a moment, I began rubbing my arms, as an icy chill drifted into the room from the vents.
‘No…’ I whispered. ‘She wouldn’t.’
‘She did!’ came the call from the well-blanketed bedroom.