Sprint By Sprint (rehoming)

We get along, but not well. She’s been making plans without me. Like a lot. I ask, I get heat. It is like I’m making it from sprint to sprint as part of the team, but at the end, I am not part of the scrum or the sprint planning sessions. The daily standup has become a nightly routine, if we have time, if she’s got energy, if her kid doesn’t take an extra long time to put down.

Wait, it’s he a bit old for that?

Shouldn’t I be a bit more than “do you want to join us?”

I race into each new day creating chaos and value at irregular intervals. Each night it’s the same dance. Will I get to see her before her “I’m done” comment closes down all comms? And what about all that icky stuff, enmeshment, over-parenting, and what it might illuminate?

I’m not here to tell you she was bad, or that she was anything but a single mom doing the best she could. I’m not here to complain. I mean, I thought I had found a loving relationship. Um…

What else can I tell you?

We did the Agile thing for a couple of years. But the velocity of “us” kept getting deprioritized. She said, “You and I are not going to be my priority this Summer.” She meant it. She left for Montana and then Hawaii with her son. The texts were few and nonresponsive. This time she is the one who left. Good for her. Maybe not so good for me or her kid.

And that’s how I ended up at the beach in Corpus Christi after she got back. She said she was not “feeling so good” about our relationship. Future sprints would now be just the two of them. I took a few extra days alone at the beach and asked that we get together to talk about things when she had time.

She never had time.

Maybe it was easier to cut it off without further compromise on either side. At least, in her mind, it was better for all of us.

Read more Short-Short Stories from John.