Yesterday is gone

For a small fee

Steph paused, trying to recall if he'd told her that. "Well," she sputtered. "I didn't hear you and was a bit worried."

"Oh, well, I'm here now," Matt grinned, trying to alleviate the situation. "Was that all?"

The theorist's wife frowned. Matt wasn't wearing his running outfit. Maybe he'd just forgot to put it on before running.

"Stephanie's inner purse is missing," Jason related. "We were wondering if you knew where it was. Or where you were."

MatPat reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out the inner purse, extending it out to his wife.

The woman was nearly speechless. "W-where did you get this? Did you take this?"

Not reacting, Matt just pointed to a small table next to the door. "It was sitting there when I got home. I picked it up just in case."

There was a moment of silence as Steph took the inner purse from him. Jason shrugged and walked off to start working again. Matthew was ready to join him, but she poked two fingers into his sternum to stop him.

"Upstairs," she spat, "now."

*

Stephanie was glaring daggers at her husband when she closed the door to their bedroom. "I need you," she hissed, "to tell me what's going on."

MatPat feigned confused. "What are you talking about?"

"This is eighth time this week you've disappeared off the face of the earth without telling anyone. It's only Thursday. And you've been doing this for a couple weeks now. What is going on?"

"Nothing is going on," Matthew shot back. "You just haven't been listening."

"Just tell me where you went today."

"I went running."

"Then why aren't you wearing any clothes for running."

"S-So I could burn more calories."

"Then why did you have my purse?"

"I found it."

They were yelling by now and at each other's faces. Matt spun away.

"I'm going on another run," he clarified. "If you even pay attention enough to hear that."

As he left the room Steph slumped onto the bed. She had an idea of where he'd been, but she almost didn't want to think about it. Pulling out her phone, she checked the credit card and debit card history. Sure enough, there it was.

Withdrawal after withdrawal of $1000 or more from the ATM at their nearby casino. After a couple of failed withdrawals from the debit card he had started using her credit card to take money out.

Steph scrolled down to the final amount owed to the bank and, with a small scream, she sent the phone sailing across the room. Gingerly, she picked up the phone and looked at the number once more.

$1,857,000 owed to the bank. At least. Tapping a few times, the female theorist flipped over to her husband's cards. It wasn't better. In fact, it was so much more expensive that she almost broke the phone from her suddenly tightening grip.

There was one last thing to note on that page. The most recent withdrawal was from a maxed out credit card. Only moments ago. MatPat was most certainly not out running.

*

Steph shook her head. "No no no," she grumbled. "It looks too much like an intervention."

"Is there any way to make an intervention not look like an intervention?" asked Jason.

"He runs to the casino every time we try to get him help," complained Steph. "The more natural this looks the likelier that we can talk to him."

"Don't you think you should tell someone else?"  Jason, re-rearranging the livestreaming room for their purpose.

"I've told you," Stephanie justified, "isn't that enough?"

Jason sighed. "Yeah, but he has a gambling addiction. It's only by luck that he hasn't started borrowing money from his parents yet. Maybe you should let him know."

"It won't get to there," Stephanie denied. "I'll make sure of-"

She was rudely interrupted by the notification of a couple texts. They were from both her parents and Matthew's parents. All of the texts asked the general question that if their donation had helped pay off the extra bills.

"What's that?" queried Jason.

Steph couldn't make herself respond. "We need to act now," she declared, turning to Jason. "Where is he?"

"Where is who?" asked Chris, entering the room.

"MatPat," Jason replied.

"Oh, he just left. Said that he had a great business opportunity and was going to make tons of money."

With this sentence, Stephanie had burst out the door and was already running to the casino.

Chris glanced around the room. "So what's going on here?"

Jason just dropped into the couch and held his head in his hands.

*

Stephanie didn't continue.

The two of them sat on either side of the bed, both curled up into balls.

"What happened next?" Matthew quietly spake.

"I-" Steph tried to speak. "I can't." Her voice broke, barely able to pronounce the consents. "It's just so hard... to relive."

Matt locked eyes with his wife. Both pairs were bloodshot. "Please," he begged, "I have to know."