Member-only story
Balance Sheet
The Cost of Family
The ceiling fan ticked above them like a metronome counting down to something neither wanted to name. Tessa stared at the spreadsheet on her laptop, the numbers blurring into meaningless patterns.
“He’s finally asleep,” Nate said, collapsing onto the couch beside her. His weight shifted the cushions, tilting her laptop. She adjusted it without looking up.
“Great.” Her voice was flat, mechanical. Like the fan. Tick. Tick. Tick.
Nate reached for the remote, then stopped, his hand hovering in midair as he noticed her screen. “Are you doing the budget again?”
“Someone has to.”
The apartment felt smaller since Eli was born. Not just because of the bassinet in their bedroom, the changing table crammed against the wall, the scattered toys already accumulating despite him being only seven months old. It was the air itself — thicker, heavier with unspoken words.
“I got paid today,” Nate offered, as if this information might soften whatever she was seeing in those columns.
“I know. I saw the deposit.” Tessa’s finger traced across the trackpad. “It’s already gone. Daycare took most of it.”
Their son’s daycare cost more than their rent. A fact that still stunned Tessa every time she wrote the…
