Stephen rose from the couch and took the sheet of paper from his tight grip, turning it face down on the island counter as he looked up at the door. His father’s large shoulder slowly began to emerge as it continued to press against the door. His usable arm still held the door handle and hanging from his fingers were two plastic white grocery bags; one with a pack of bagels sticking out. He pushed the door open as far as he could and held it in position. Rebecca came through the door shuffling sideways past Tom with two arms outstretched and bearing half a dozen white grocery sacks trickling from her fit but rail thin arms.
“I’m so sorry to make such a ruckus. I couldn’t get the handle with all these bags and… well, what can I say? He still likes to hold the door for me.” She turned back and gave Tom a quick peck on the lips, “Thank you, my perfect gentleman.”
Tom let out an affirming, “Humph” and proudly walked to the other side to continue holding the door open with his foot.
Rebecca began to speak but caught the expressionless look on Stephen’s face. Sarah made her way through the door with Tom still holding it open, “Thanks, Dad.”
“Hey Hon, your parents have spoiled us again. Your dad insisted on putting steaks in his cart and as soon as we checked out he absolutely refused to not let me take them. I’m telling you, he is one determined…” Talking away and progressing towards the kitchen she felt the uneasy welcome of Stephen’s silence. “What’s wrong?”
“My darling,” Rebecca, keenly aware of the environment and gently took Tom by the arm and pulled him out the open door, “would you mind helping me get the rest of the groceries out of the car?”
Addressing Sarah, Stephen turned over the piece of paper he had been studying and stewing over for half the day. “Do you remember when we had the home equity loan taken out with that other bank a couple of years ago?”
“Yes.” Sarah responded hesitantly, “Didn’t that get paid off at the end of last year?”
“It didn’t get paid off, Sarah. The mortgage company forgave it.” Stephen said curtly. He was upset and history told him to start bringing up his defenses for the fight which was about to begin.
“Okay, they were really generous and helped us out because we couldn’t afford to make the payments. Regardless, it’s gone. We don’t owe anything on it anymore. Right?” When it came to financial items Sarah tried to be very thorough to make sure there were no strings remaining before closing the books. Talking about the resurgence of a home equity loan she had been confident they were free of made her sick to her stomach.
“We don’t owe the money on the loan but apparently the amount they forgave us, well, it’s still taxable.”
“Is that normal? Did we process something wrong? We did exactly what they told us to do.”
“There’s some sort of exclusion out there that allows mortgage loans to be forgiven without paying taxes on it but apparently that doesn’t apply to home equity loans.” He gritted his teeth from the unpleasant expectation that she would blame him for this.
Sarah was confused. Financial concepts didn’t come second nature to either of them. It was a major step for her to take over the family finances. During deployment there were even few moments where she wrestled the urge to play ignorant and watch banking statements ‘accidentally’ get tossed with junk mail. But this time, with calm overwhelming her stirred stomach, Sarah found the strength to respond with a humble tone as she worked through the news, “Is there a reason we didn’t have the mortgage forgiven instead of the home equity line?”
Ready for the impending battle, Stephen launched the first assault, “We couldn’t Sarah. It was with another company and they weren’t offering to forgive the mortgage. It’s too big. That would have been too much money for them to lose.” To drive home his point, he shot an extra measure of condescension in his tone.
Sarah answered in the most non-accusing way she could, “Alright. What does this mean for us? What do we have to do? Are we going to have to pay it all back?”
Stephen huffed and looked at her with a frustrated face, though not necessarily directed at her now. “No. No, we don’t have to pay it back, Sarah. That’s not the point of loan forgiveness. But we do have to show it as income and because of that we owe the IRS thousands of dollars.” He took a deep breath and awaited the barrage of her explosive temper. Defenses were firmly in place and Stephen readied the launch of his counter attack against whatever she would throw at him.
“Alright. We’ll work together and figure it out.”
Stephen was so surprised at her accommodating response that he unintentionally verbalized it. “Excuse me?”
“It’s okay. We’ll work something out. I’ve got some ideas I wanted to talk with you about but you’ve obviously been giving this a lot of thought today. We’ll be more productive if we talk about it later when we’ve both had a chance to process this and think a little more clearly.” With that, Sarah stepped back and began to put away the groceries.
Completely convinced he was unwillingly participating in some sort of hidden camera show; Stephen looked around the empty room to see who she was performing for. He pressed her, “Wait!”
Immediately, Sarah put down the bag she was holding and replied with a smile, “Yeah, Hon?”
Completely disarmed by her soft tone, Stephen hesitated and then found himself almost at a loss, “Well, um… you said ideas. Um, what sort of ideas?”
“Some different things about how to help us out.”
“Okay… I’ll bite, what’s on your mind?” There was an uncharacteristic perk in his voice that caught Stephen off guard.
“Well, you’ve spent the last several months looking for a job.”
Here we go, Stephen thought. The sweet, passive and loving set up before she spikes his ego into the ground.
“I see you every day putting on the suit and going out there looking for work. You never take a day off. You’re working hard, really hard. I was thinking that you’re probably working harder than most people do in their full time jobs.”
He appreciated that she noticed he hadn’t been sitting on a couch waiting for a job to land in his lap.
“Basically, you’re in sales right now.”
“Come again?” Stephen had never spent a day of his life in sales and his confusion bucket was already too full to register what she was saying.
“You’re in sales but the product you’re selling is you. You’re trying to sell yourself to all these companies. Maybe it’s too much for them to buy a full-time employee in this horrible job market. Maybe what they need is to get a look at the product’s work before they commit to buying.”
“I think you lost me at the idea of sales.”
“Here’s the thing. I know how wonderful you are.” Sarah came from around the kitchen island and placed her thumbs into the belt loops of Stephen’s jeans. “I know what an amazing man you are and how hard of a worker you are. I know that whatever company hires you is going to be better for it.”
Stephen’s mind tripped and hit the delete key, leaving him to stand there with a blank on his face.
“The problem is that these companies don’t know it yet. To them, you’re just another real estate appraiser looking for a job.” She slipped her grip off his hips and returned to putting away the groceries.
“Okay, I understand that part. See it about a dozen times a week.”
She continued, “Instead of asking for a job as a full-time employee, what if you were a contractor for them. You take on the individual jobs and show them how good you are.”