Gabby's Solution

As Gabby slammed the door to her bedroom a her heart beat fast with the passion of haughtiness. How could Max be so stupid. She'd really told him off this time! She emphatically began undressing for bed throwing her clothes as violently as possible into the hamper. Stepping to the shower she let the warm water calm her down.

And as she calmed, a new feeling entered her. She saw the defeated crest fallen look of her husband as she had rudely chewed him out. She remembered him shuffling to the living room and turning on the TV only to stare absent mindedly at it. He didn't even seem to notice her go to their bedroom. A new feeling welled up in her, guilt, a deep crushing guilt in the pit of her stomach. How could she have been so rude, how could she have been so disrespectful. She loved her husband, but recently he had just polled away. He was a presence in the house, but hardly a companion. Wincing inwardly she realized that this was far from the first time she'd acted that way toward him. She'd become just what she always determined she would never be, a naggy, bossy wife. And her husband had become what she had never wanted, a passive, disengaged wimp. Truth be told she resented him for putting up with her disrespect. She wanted him to stand up to her, call the shots and be the man of the family, but alas, she'd trained him otherwise.

She remembered the wise words of her mom the day she gleefully announced that she was engaged. "Gabby, remember what a man craves more than anything else is respect. If you give it to him, he will be crazy for you, if you withhold it, he will find it elsewhere." At the time the advice had seemed silly, of course she would respect him, how could she not! She loved him. But as Gabby stepped out of the shower and reached for her towel, she had to admit that she'd stopped showing respect for him long ago.

"What have I done? Have I turned him into the passive man he is?" She wondered, knowing the answer. Not only had he disengaged from her, He'd become a real workaholic. This made her even more naggy as she pestered him about what he was doing while he was out late, and complained about him putting his work before her. Now she realized that that too was her fault. As her mom had said, "If you withhold respect, he'll get it from somewhere else." Suddenly she realized just how lucky she was that he'd gone to his work to gain respect, a man of less character would have gone to another woman. She knew he hadn't done that, she'd been spying on him enough to be confident that he didn't have a woman on the side.

As she began brushing her long dark hair, she chided herself. How could she have been so disrespectful to the man she loved? "Mom would have never let me act like this!" she thought to herself. Glancing at the brush she remembered the last time she'd spoken disrespectfully to mom. She was sweet 16, and full of herself. But mom had grabbed her hair brush, pulled down her pants and panties, hauled her over her knee, and spanked the living daylights out of her faster than she could say "Jack Robinson!" And It worked. She'd never sassed or spoken disrespectfully to her mom again. Without thinking she reached back and rubbed her bare bottom then she looked down at the brush for a long minute. Was this what she needed now? "now you're just being silly." Gabby chided herself. You're a grown woman and he's your husband, not your dad!

She knew she'd have to apologize to him in the morning. But she'd done a lot of that recently. Her pattern had been that she would lambast him in the evening and stomp off to bed. He would stay up and watch tv all night. She never quite knew when he got to bed because she'd be fast asleep when he came. In the morning she'd feel guilty and apologize to him and promise never to do it again. Only to repeat it a few days later. This had been so common that Max didn't even acknowledge the apologies anymore. As she donned her nightgown and slipped into bed, she was determined that something had to change. She had to do something to break the pattern. She didn't want to loose her husband.

She thought again of the thought she'd had while brushing her hair. But once more shoved it off as crazy. "Come on Gabby, you're too old to be spanked." But even as she said it, the voice of her mom range in her memory. She was 18 and had been caught using the family car without permission to take some boys to a dance, she hadn't been given permission to attend. As her daddy dragged her into her room and pulled down her skimpy dance skirt and panties she'd appealed to her mom, "Please mom, don't let him do this, I'm 18, I'm too old for spankings."