When Arnold finally arrived home that evening he was irked to discover another car in the drive alongside Barbara's Subaru, blocking him from pulling in. 'Who the hell is over this late?' Arnie thought to himself as he parked temporarily in the street. Then, after wrangling his suitcase out of the car he tromped up to the door only to find it locked, annoying him further. Barbara and Kyla knew he was coming home today. Fishing in his pocket he found his key and tried unlocking the door only to discover his key didn't fit. Confused and annoyed, he resorted to pounding on the door until finally it swung open as his wife answered it.
"Hi, can we help you?" Barbara asked, a slightly confused expression on her face. Arnold was gobsmacked by the sight of his wife, Barbara hadn't looked so good since college. She was still the woman he knew but not as he remembered her. The grey hairs that had started to come in at her roots were gone, leaving her shoulder length hair a glossy chestnut; the stubborn weight she'd never been able to lose after her pregnancy had melted away, leaving her actually thinner and more fit than she'd been the day he met her. She still wore glasses, currently perched cutely on her nose, but with a more tasteful slim gold frame instead of her usual thick black plastic rectangles. She wore a pair of form fitting purple yoga pants and a low cut red cap sleeve blouse, nothing overly fancy but a good bit more revealing than her usual style. All together it was like she'd made lots of minor to moderate improvements to how she took care of or styled herself, that culminated in transforming her into some sort of idealized version of Barbara.
"Barbara, what in the world did you do to yourself!?" Arnie stammered once he found his voice again. He wasn't exactly complaining about her new look, but it was a massive change to take place in two weeks. A makeover was one thing, but she must have lost thirty to forty pounds at least. "Did you go to a plastic surgeon?!" Not the most tactful thing to say, but Arnold was at that moment deeply confused.
Barbara stepped back defensively, moving to grab the door so she could close it. "Sir, I did not ask to be harassed by some stranger on my doorstep when my family is trying to eat dinner. What do you want?" she asked firmly.
"What do you mean stranger, it's me, Arnold!" Arnie exclaimed.
Barbara readjusted her glasses and looked him over, "Arnold.... Leeson? From college?" She asked uncertainly, still not seeming to totally recognize him.
Arnold was beginning to get seriously pissed off at whatever weirdness was going on; if he was on candid camera or something, he was absolutely not in the mood. Exasperated he retorted, "No as in your husb-"
"Babe, your pizza's getting cold!" A voice called out from behind Barbara, further in the house, cutting him off. Looking past his wife for the moment he was startled to see Skylar Hart, a willowy blonde wearing a black scoop neck sweater and nice beige slacks, walking towards the door. Skylar was the art teacher at Kyla's school, and someone he'd really only interacted with a time or things like parent-teacher night and the annual art exhibition. Even more shocking than the woman being in his house was her sliding her arm around Barbara's waist and giving her a peck on the cheek before turning to look at him. "I'm sorry, who is this?"
"It's Arnold Leeson," Barbara explained turning to look fondly at Skylar, "he's an old classmate of mine from college." She turned back to glare at him, "apparently I've changed so much since he last saw me he thinks I've been having work done."
Skylar's eyebrow twitched as she stared him down, "well that was very rude of him. Is there a reason you're here Arnold? Or did you just stop by to insult my wife?"
