Duty days were always the worst.

I hated that Logan had to sleep on the boat and wouldn't come home for dinner. It felt like they had taken him away again, but only for a trial run.

Duty days were everything a deployment was, but would happen every 3-4 days. Though they were on a scheduled cycle, they always seemed to pop out of nowhere.

Last night, when dinner rolled around and Logan never came home, the kids were devastated. I knew I shouldn't have said anything, and you'd think that after so many years of this lifestyle, I would have things figured out by now.

I didn't.

If anything, it felt like I was still drowning in all of the sudden changes that at this point should be just so normal.

But today was a new day, and the start of a new month too. Logan would be home with the kids tonight, and I wouldn't have to sleep alone. But after work, I had to head over to the family readiness meeting. My mother would pick the kids up from school and Logan would pick them up from her house before heading home.

At least he would after he saw the text I sent him telling him he needed to. Now let's just hope he turns his phone on before driving all the way home.

Oh God, I hope he checked his phone when he got off work.

I couldn't think about that too much right now, I needed to focus on the emails in front of me. I needed to actually get some done today or else I'd be in the boss office needing to explain some things.

The number of emails grew intensely larger than I would have ever allowed it to get and the number seemed to double... no triple every few minutes.

So I cracked my knuckles, and I got to work.

~*~

"Come sit down everyone, it's time to start the meeting!" A blonde-haired woman shouted from the front of the church room. I followed suit, signing in and taking a seat somewhere near the middle. The host laughed with other people sitting closer to the front. The girls huddled together like it was their job to protect one another.

Maybe in this world that's what you needed? The civilian world was cruel, but there was nothing like a wife that felt she deserved to have her husband home more than any other on the same boat.

The wives began sitting down, and this meeting had a better turn out than some of the previous ones I'd been to. There was about 20 other spouses here.

"Welcome everyone to today's meeting, we are going to call this meeting to order at 7:03 pm, it's a wonderful Tuesday evening, and hopefully everyone had a good day at work." Some of the crowd rolled their eyes annoyed that this was so late into the evening. The newer spouses at at the edge of their seat thinking they were going to get some juicy piece of gossip that would help them decipher when their husband was going back out to sea.

That would not be the case.

The more veteran-like wives sat closer to the back, only here for the random perks that may appear. Though since this was the first meeting since the guys had gotten back this was highly unlikely.

The wives continue to chatter, a slight lull of voices filled the air while the host of the meeting tried her best to get everyone to focus up.

She wasn't very good at her job, this being one of the world's worst FRG's I'd ever been involved in.

"Okay, let's get this meeting started off by discussing some of our previous events." She awkwardly chuckled. "We had a great coffee meetup. We had about two spouses show up so we are pretty excited about that. We also did our Easter egg hunt as most of you know at the homecoming event last month. That was a wild last minute change of plans " another awkward chuckle.

The president of the group should have never been voted into her position. Her name was Sabrina and though she was considered a veteran spouse and had been doing this for a long time, she cared more about her own travels than she did helping the other families on the boat. Often she would disappear to Germany for a few months at a time and the events would just be expected to work with what little planning she did. To make matters worse she wouldn't plan the event until the month it was supposed to happen.

This often left wives confused on what was going on and where. The wives that have done this for a while can spot a poorly ran FRG from a mile away. But I felt horrible for the young new wives that were just desperately searching for some sort of support during the hard months.

They would not find it here with this group.

The Family Readiness Group was supposed to be a place where wives could come together, meeting other spouses and make those lifelong friendships that most military comedies talk about.

This meeting would be over in less than twenty minutes, when it's supposed to take an hour. The wives would leave more confused than they showed up and they would get both Facebook and email invites to events on different days then what they were told.

"Well, with that being said, let's continue on. The new events we have this month are a coffee meetup, and we are doing a tee shirt design contest. Please let us know if you are joining in on either one of those."

I sat waiting for more information, falling victim to the very thing I knew would happen. That's all she had to say about the events coming up.

"What are the restrictions on the shirt designs?" A younger redhead spouts off. She was newer to the lifestyle and already growing frustrated with the way things work.

The sudden question threw the president off hilter. She turned to see where the voice was coming from as the color drained from her face.

Oh no, a question. How shocking.

"Uh, sorry I don't have any info on the restrictions, just that the captain of the boat has to approve all designs." The president responds.

"You're telling me you are advertising an event that you have no info for?" The redhead folds her arms over her chest. This was the reason to come to these meetings.

"Yes, sorry, I will get more information and post it to the Facebook page later in the week." The president tried to grab her papers to move on. "Can we get the treasury repo--"

"The deadline is the end of this week! You should have had this information already. How do you expect anyone to join in on this? Where do they hand in their design? What format would you like? Is there a time deadline or just a date? What are the restrictions? What is a theme? You want me to just throw a baby cow and some dead flowers on a design and send it over? Come on!" I like this girl. She was saying everything that I had been thinking, though a little harsher than I would have.

"Those are all excellent suggestions, and I'd recommend you volunteer for this job in our August elections." She wasn't having it anymore. The president, whose name I thought was Sabrina, shuffled her papers, clearing her throat and turning to look towards the treasurer. With a nod, they knew they needed to get this meeting back on track.

"In our bank account, we have a total of $2,761.48 as of this morning. This will be lower than that because we still have to pay for our second order of blankets." The treasurer added with a thick jersey accent.

"Thank you so much for that, and with all of that, let's see if our ombudsman has anything else to add to the meeting." Sabrina turned to the two ombudsmen. Now these were a group of helpful women that really knew what they were talking about.

An Ombudsman was a wife's connection between the boat while they were out to sea, but they often knew and had helpful information for any kind of question you could have. There was one ombudsman for every so many sailors on the boat to make sure they had the time to support all of the families.

The difference between an ombudsman and the FRG President is that if the ombudsman didn't do their job, it affects the entire command and everyone is upset about it. But if Sabrina keeps messing up her job, everyone will just wait until the August elections and vote her out. The captain of the boat didn't give a shit what the FRG was doing as long as they followed all the safety protocols.

"Nope, we have nothing to add to the meeting." One ombudsman stood up, saying what she needed to say, and then sat back in her chair.

"Okay, well, if they don't have anything to add to this meeting, then we can call this meeting to a close at 7:29 pm. We hope to see you at our next meeting and at some of our events this month." Sabrina closes her laptop that was streaming a video feed to the families that could not be here in person. I didn't understand why they would want to be a part of the meetings, anyway. It only pertained to information about what was going on in person. Unless we were doing a fundraiser, but all of the info for that was always on the Facebook page. It was the one thing the current board members were good at updating. Making sure they were getting as much money from fundraising as they could to make themselves look good.

All the wives that were still sitting stood up from their chairs and most broke off into their little clicks. I wasn't ever a part of these groups. I never found it helpful to be a part of a group that wanted to go to the bar on the weekends and do all these girl trips while the boys were away. If my husband was home, he was my priority, and I'd spend my time with him. Speaking of which, I needed to get back home so that I could spend the rest of what was left of tonight with him.

I gathered my things, trying to make a break for the front door, when I heard some shouting happen behind me.

"This is ridiculous Sabrina!" The redhead was pushing the issue again, this time talking directly with the President of the group instead of shouting over the entire room. There wasn't much of a difference, but this was more of a direct attack.

"I don't know what to tell you. That's the information they gave me, and I'm just trying to pass it along." Sabrina held strong, not letting this girl push her over.

I decided now was best to leave, as I didn't want to end up on one of those Facebook pages when a fight would break out between these wives. I had better and more important things to do.

After a not-too-long drive home, I was excited to be greeted by Logan as I walked through the door. Both kids were already in bed, meaning he ended up checking his phone on his way home.

"How was the meeting?" He kissed my forehead and suddenly all of the tension drifted away.

"Well, they were ten seconds away from a fistfight when I left, so you know... the usual." I smiled, pulling Logan into the biggest hug.

"Soon we will be done with all of this."