Read Listed: Volume IV for Free Online

she’d gotten into a fight with him over leaving
the sights early. His mood then, however, had clearly been prompted by a
specific situation—no matter how irrational his response to it was.
    But
there was no explaining what was wrong with him today.
    He
was just in a bad mood.
    They
were flying to Prince Edward Island for their camping trip, and Emily had woken
up cheerful and excited. Paul had been quiet over breakfast, but she hadn’t let
it worry her. He’d been as considerate with her as normal as they'd gotten
ready to leave for the airport.
    But
things had started to go wrong when they’d been about to take off in the
private jet he’d chartered—a ridiculous expense, but he said all the commercial
flights were too long and roundabout. Their takeoff was delayed because of
severe weather in the area. While Emily was anxious to get to PEI, and delays
at airports were always frustrating, she wasn't too worried about it. It wasn’t
like she was squeezed into a coach seat on a hot, crowded airplane for hours. She
could stretch out and read Shakespeare. Waiting an extra hour or two just
wasn't that big a deal.
    Paul
had not been pleased, though, and his displeasure had been evident to everyone
around him, including the airport manager who ended up apologizing to Paul more
than once for a weather situation he had no control over.
    Emily
had tried to get Paul to drink his mimosa, telling him he needed more vitamin C
but mostly just hoping a little champagne would take the edge off his mood.
He’d eyed her with cool impatience and obediently drunk the flute of mimosa in
four gulps.
    His
mood hadn’t improved.
    Emily
quickly grew annoyed, but she didn’t reproach him. Not until he snapped at the
young woman serving them on the plane. Emily asked for no zucchini in her
vegetable and cheese omelet, but it arrived with zucchini in it. She didn’t
think it was a problem, and she just started to pull out some of the unwanted
zucchini and eat the rest of the very tasty omelet in perfect contentment.
    But
Paul called the server over and made Emily give the woman the plate back until
they could get the order right. Emily had never seen him be anything but perfectly
polite to service workers, and even now he didn't say anything directly rude or
offensive. But his manner was brusque, and his tone was very, very curt.
    The
young woman serving them was clearly upset by Paul’s terseness. Emily could see
it in the woman's face as she returned the omelet to the back of the plane. So
Emily made a perfectly reasonable comment to him about how he didn’t have to
take out his bad mood on the people around him.
    They
got into a long, heated argument. Over absolutely nothing. Finally Emily was so
frustrated and indignant that she’d just given up. The jet was able to take off
at last, so she read Shakespeare for most of the trip while Paul made calls and
worked on email.
    She
listened to him get in arguments with four different people on the phone, over
various issues connected to his work that weren’t going the way he wanted them
to go. From what she could tell from overhearing only one side of the
conversations, none of the issues seemed all that important, but Paul
definitely acted like they were.
    By
the time they landed at the Charlottetown Airport on PEI, Emily had absolutely no
patience left with her husband. Because of the way the day had gone so far, she
wasn’t at all surprised that there was a hold-up as they tried to get through
customs. It wasn’t long, but it was enough for Paul to speak sharply to several
more people.
    She
was actually a little embarrassed. He never raised his voice, and the words he
said were always basically civil, but his tone and his expression made it clear
he was displeased with everyone he encountered. Because they’d arrived on a
private jet, airport employees were going out of their way to accommodate him
and so were flustered when he was so obviously unhappy with them. Emily tried
to