Free Everything Gained by Carolyn Faulkner Page A

reminder of just who was in charge in their relationship. The awful truth was that he'd grown a horrid, completely natural one at the end of his arm and had no need for anything else. Gain had always taken care of Nina and he considered that aspect of that relationship a completely organic extension of that tendency. He'd been on the lookout for her from the moment the two of them were put in a playpen together. When they were younger, he'd always been the voice of reason that reigned in her headstrong ideas... like wanting to skate on a partially frozen stream near their houses.
    By now, after years together, she should have known better than to do what she'd done. Gain didn't tolerate any misbehavior from her at all, and this was a big one.
    A really big one, physically and literally.
    They had agreed, long ago, in the interest of not ever getting bogged down in as much debt as they had when the business was first starting out, that they wouldn't make big purchases without discussing it together first. Originally, they had agreed on a mutual fifty dollar limit, back when fifty dollars was a huge sum of money for them. The limit had increased as the business had taken off, and now sat at five hundred dollars. Luckily, neither of them had a tendency to buy much on impulse, with the exception of his collection of Star Wars memorabilia and her clothes horse tendencies. But both of them enjoyed the hunt for a bargain as much as the actual acquisition, so she would very happily haunt all of the sales and outlets and they both scouted flea markets and yard sales when they had time on their days off together.
    But Nina loved to entertain - to throw small, intimate dinner parties or just have everyone over to play cards and snack themselves into oblivion - and since all of them were dying to see the latest Star Wars incarnation, she had decided to host marathons of the movies that had already been released, and have everyone over to screen them on the two Sundays before the movie was released.
    Her one problem was that although they had the seating to accommodate everyone easily, and she'd made it a pot luck affair, so that even most of the cooking was being delegated to a certain extent, the television in the living room was relatively small and old. She'd needled Gain about getting a new one, but they couldn't agree on which type to get, and when they couldn't agree his opinion settled the argument. She wanted one of the new plasma televisions that hung on the wall - preferably something obscenely large and clear, that would show the movies to their best advantage. They had been appalled to discover that some of their younger friends had never seen the original three movies, and Nina wanted them to really pop.
    But even though the prices of plasma and LCD televisions had come down quite considerably, the big ones were still enormously expensive, and since they didn't watch TV in the den much, Gain couldn't quite justify the expense. He had thought they had decided that they could either get a cheaper, regular television or make do with the one they had.
    Nina, on the other hand, had found exactly what she wanted online at a fairly reasonable price for what it was, and had actually already ordered it without so much as consulting her husband before hand. That little thought had niggled in the back of her mind as she'd clicked to "confirm" that she wanted to purchase it; that he was going to be unhappy when he found out. But she'd thought that he'd fall in love with it once she'd gotten it all set up and hung on the wall, where everyone could see how gorgeous and crisp and clean the picture was without it taking up any floor space.
    It was the perfect idea.
    Only he stayed home on the day it was delivered, and had gotten to the door first to sign for it. As soon as he saw the Best Buy box, he knew by the shape exactly what it was without Nina having to tell him as she hovered nervously behind him, wishing desperately that she was