It had been a long couple of days.

He was tired. His fingers hurt from pulling weeds and moving bricks, his skin was taut from over exposure to soaps, cleaners, and no-streak glass treatments, and his feet were killing him.

And that was just from the things he had to do at home. Work was a spinning maelstrom of contracts, conferences, and con games that left his chest tight and his head throbbing.

To top it all off, he’d told a friend he’s set up a new computer for him before the weekend. Sure, it was too late to start on it that night, but this was the only night he had left, so he shuffled to the refrigerator and grabbed a couple of beers to keep him company while his wife slept, then he stepped over to the pantry looking for something to nosh.

The chips were stale. Pop-tarts were too sweet. Soup took too long.

But there… oh, yes.

A can of mixed nuts. He opened it to check; just enough to tide him over and not enough to make him sick, and no little crumbs — just whole nutty goodness, with plenty of cashews and almonds. It was perfect.

He got the can in one hand and headed for the light of his office where the new machine lurked.

But wait. His computer bag — his tools — it was sitting over there, off to the side, so he limped over, bent down, shuffled his grip around, snagged the bag, and headed back for the half-open door of the office. The night was looking up.

The door handle caught him, though.

Rather, it caught the loop of the handle on his bag, pulling at it, forcing his grip to change… forcing him to drop the mixed nuts.

The can was still open of course.

It was almost enough to make a grown man cry; his wife had cats you see, and the slightly oily, slightly salted bits of perfection that had flung themselves far and wide from the impact point of that midnight blue can were covered in feline hair. Ruined. If he’d lived in a sitcom world, there would have been a laugh track playing.

Instead there was silence, and a silently pouting man forced to throw away a cat-hairy can of peanuts and go back for something else to munch on.

Oh sure, he ended up with a good orange, but it just wasn’t the same.