Husband was arguing with someone yesterday.

I do not know who this person is, and I think neither does he. It was an argument of words, typed on his laptop, that started in the afternoon. It continued through dinner, as I watched him get more and more grim and his typing become more and more forceful.

He brought the laptop to the diner during our evening shift, which he had not done before. He set it up on the counter and would come back to it between bits of cleaning while I took orders at the register. He was far less efficient with the mopping than usual.

Whatever the argument was, it seemed important to him, but he did not want to talk about it as much as type about it. When I looked over his shoulder to see exactly what he was typing, it looked like at least half of it was insults. The anger he got from the argument carried into his scrubbing, where he was vehement with mop or sponge or cloth. I think he alarmed the customers.

It did not stop when we closed the diner for the night. We got into bed and he continued typing. I laid on my side facing away from him, but I could still hear the furious clatter of his fingers on keys and the screen lit the room.

"It is time to sleep, Husband."

"Just a minute."

"You have been at this for hours."

"Just a little more."

"I want to be held."

"Look, I just want to get this one point across..."

I rolled over. I put both feet against his hip and shoved. He and his laptop and his argument went to the floor. I rolled back.

It was silent for a moment, then the bed shifted as he climbed back into it. His arm slipped around me. We slept.

I do not know who I competed with for my husband's attention. But I won.