Housekeeper Horrors

A couple of years back after I'd been injured and Moreen was in Europe, she arranged for our housekeeper, Maria, to stay with me in the house at night and during some days. After a very hard day at work, and a call from an attorney about my son, I was very tired. When I came home that evening Maria asked if I wanted her to prepare something for me for dinner. All I wanted to do was go to bed, but I sat at the dining room table sort of watching the news.  Maria took my indecision as an insult to her and she said I didn't need her help and she was going to go home.  Huh? "You're like so many men who just ignore women when they ask a question," she said. "Do you want me to go home?" Do you want to go home?  "Do you want me to?" Do you want to go? "If you don't want me here I will leave. It sounds like you don't care if I'm here or not so I'm going to leave." She marched down the hall and started opening and slamming drawers, packing her suitcase. "You haven't wanted me here this whole time. I can tell. I can tell when men don't like me. I'd think you would be more sensitive and understand my feelings (blah blah blah.)"

She picked up her suitcase, walked out the door as she yelled goodbye, and drove away. What in God's name just happened? Later in the evening I called her apartment and apologized (?) for any misunderstanding. Then I told her I'd had a real hard day and come back on Thursday to make me the vegetarian sandwich the promised. I got her message machine. Later she called back and I really didn't want to talk with her then, so I let it go to record, and asked her to come back, that I did enjoy having her here, etc. "I'll be back on Friday afternoon to clean the house one last time before Moreen comes home." Friday afternoon, to skip the details, was laughable. "No, I will not make you a sandwich. I don't know what it is about men that after they fight they want me to cook for them. I couldn't cook for you because I know you don't love me. It's like make up sex." I sat on the couch dumbfounded as she spent an hour cleaning, changing the sheets on Moreen's bed, and stepping over the dogs without saying hello like she usually does. And she was gone.  I explained to Moreen that Maria and I had a misunderstanding, that she left here very upset on Wednesday evening, and I really didn't know what she was talking about. Oh, and she should be fired.  Moreen called Maria and God knows what they talked about, but Maria apologized to Moreen and said that she didn't know I'd had such a hard day. Had she asked... Well, I still see Maria come to the house every two weeks and clean.  "She does a good job cleaning, and the dogs love her."