Emma Hannigan Baking Up A Storm

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When Julie was forced to take a leave of absence from the bank due to ongoing neck trouble, her husband Norman had a lot to say on the matter.

“You’d better get that operation done and dusted quickly. I can’t be expected to do everything around here.”

“I didn’t decide to have disc trouble to annoy you. It’s not my fault,” Julie said through gritted teeth.

Her friends and her sister Claire had long since given up telling her to leave him. She’d stayed primarily for the children. He was a lousy husband but nobody could deny he was a great dad.

He was on the sideline for every rugby match the two boys played and nobody shouted louder at Jenny’s hockey.

Where he fell short was with Julie. She’d waited seventeen years for a compliment and she guessed she’d be waiting a lot longer for one, too.

They socialised separately as he didn’t trust anyone else to babysit. She knew he preferred the company of his snooker buddies, along with a few pints and curry, to a night out anywhere with her.

So Julie had her own gang too and enjoyed her girls’ nights out.

When the twinges first began in her neck and later eked down her right arm and even across her shoulders into her back, she saw her GP. He gave her painkillers and referred her for physio.

When nothing worked and the problem accelerated, she ended up having an MRI scan that showed she needed an operation and would need six months to recover.