# Chapter 20: The Muddy Run, a Frayed Marriage, and a Dreamy Escape
Hello everyone, it’s me again! How are you all doing? Today, I’ll lovingly guide you through another emotionally packed chapter of *Married at First Swipe*. Grab a warm cuppa, settle in, and let’s walk together through this beautiful mess of family life, buried resentment, and a woman who desperately needs to remember who she is besides a mum, wife, and business owner.
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It was nine o’clock on a freezing Sunday morning, and Jess found herself standing in a damp, miserable field, wondering for the millionth time why on earth anyone would willingly run through thick mud for fun. Her wellies were useless against the biting cold, and her toes had long ago turned into little blocks of ice. She loved her twins – of course she did – but seeing Lily and Tom eagerly tying their trainers for another Park Run made her question whether those nine months of pregnancy had actually scrambled her brain. Because there was no way these energetic, fresh-faced little athletes could possibly share her DNA.
Still, she was a good mum, so she promised to stand on the sidelines and cheer them on with all the enthusiasm she could muster in the cold. And if she sneakily checked her emails while waiting, well, that was just multitasking. The last couple of weeks had been a whirlwind: the possible sale of the business was moving far faster than expected, Hannah had been oddly distracted, and Jess felt like she was spinning more plates than a circus performer. She had a vague, guilty sense that she wasn’t fully present anywhere, but what could she do? Life didn’t slow down just because she was already breathless.
Her sharp eyes spotted Lily and Tom flying past her position. She whooped and hollered encouragements, pressing her cold hands together as she scanned the crowd for her son. Sam was trailing behind, as usual. Jess secretly wished Tom had chosen to run beside Sam instead of darting ahead with Lily, because nothing bruised a little boy’s ego like his twin sister beating him for the hundredth time.
“Go, Sam! You can do it! You’re nearly there!” she screeched.
And then, as if the universe wanted to add insult to injury, Jess tried to hurry toward the finish line. The mud however had other plans. Her right welly sank deep, and with a horrifying *schluuuuurp*, it stayed behind, firmly anchored in the soil. Jess lost her balance, flailed wildly, and only just avoided face-planting into the quagmire by digging her other boot desperately into the ground. She stood there, one leg in a stripy sock that was now soaked in brown sludge, tears stinging her eyes.
“For fuck’s sake!” she howled, not caring that children and enormous Labradoodles were staring at her.
She fumbled in her pocket for tissues, found a wad that had clearly been exposed to her eight-year-old’s snot, and despairingly wiped the filthy sock before stuffing it back into her boot with a wet squelch. Hobbling and fuming, she finally made it to the finish area, just in time to see Sam cross. She cheered, but her mind was rattled.
Then Tom appeared, arm around a sobbing Lily.
“What’s wrong, darling?” Jess’s heart lurched.
“I got a personal best,” Lily wailed.
“That’s amazing!” Jess reached for a hug.
“But you weren’t there to see it,” Lily hiccupped, and the words cut through Jess like a shard of glass. She tried to comfort her daughter, but then Lily sniffed and gasped: “Eurgh, what is that smell? Have you wiped dog poo on my top?”
Jess looked at the tissues still balled in her hand. “No, no, darling, it’s just a bit of mud from my foot –”
But there was no time to explain, because Sam arrived in full tantrum mode. “I’m NEVER doing Park Run again! Lily nearly tripped me up at the start! Tell her off, Mum! It’s not fair!”
“I got a personal best anyway, so you’ll never be as good as me!” Lily bellowed through her ugly cry.
And within seconds, both twins were sobbing furiously, Jess was drowning in mud and noise, and Tom was casually chatting to another dad as if his family weren’t falling apart around him.
Jess tried desperately to shepherd her two weeping, bickering children out of the park. With every step, her soaked sock squelched miserably inside her boot. Tom, meanwhile, stopped to talk to what seemed like every other person in the universe. Five minutes of sobbing and arguing later, Jess felt genuine tears forming behind her own eyes. This was going to be one of *those* days.
Desperate times called for desperate measures. She broke her own “no sugary snacks before lunch” rule and promised the twins a treat from the sweet shop. That produced reluctant sniffles, but when she insisted they could only get one bar each, another meltdown began. Embarrassed by the escalating scene, she caved: they could also share a twenty-pence mix. And because she was exhausted and human, she quietly slipped a dark chocolate Bounty into the bag for herself.
As if by magic, the sweets worked. The twins walked ahead, sharing strawberry laces and chatting about the massive spot on their teacher’s nose, their tantrums evaporating as quickly as they had appeared.
Jess sighed with relief and shoved the Bounty into her mouth, barely chewing before swallowing. She turned to smile at her husband – but was met with a frown.
“I can’t believe you weren’t there for Lily when she crossed the finishing line,” Tom chided.
Jess nearly choked. “I *did* try, but my welly fell off in the mud and went all through my sock, and I had to sort myself out!”
“She was really upset, you know.”
“I *know* she was, thanks, Tom – I was there for that bit! I didn’t do it on purpose, obviously!”
Tom didn’t back down. “Getting a personal best is a big thing for her. You know how much she likes running. We just need to make sure we’re supporting her properly.”
Jess saw red. “Thanks for the lecture, Tom! I’ll bear that in mind the next time I’m trying to make sure everyone has a clean sports kit, has eaten a proper breakfast, and has their wet-weather stuff packed, all before half past eight on a Sunday morning! Are you just having a go at me because I was pissed off when you let Sam play that horrible video game? Are we really doing the point-scoring thing now?”
“No, of course not. I was just saying it’s good to encourage the kids when they excel at something, and Lily seems to have a real talent for running. Sam’s pretty good too.”
“I *do* encourage them! What do you think I do every evening – helping with their art projects, listening to them read, testing their spellings, making packed lunches, finding their missing shoes, cleaning the kitchen, and then going to work to keep this family financially afloat?”
Tom tried to cut in but Jess wasn’t done. “Let you *what*, Tom? Fall asleep on the sofa while the house – and our children – go to rack and ruin?”
“Now you’re just being silly,” he muttered.
The word *silly* ignited something inside her. “Oh, you want silly? I’ll tell you what’s silly – you in those ridiculous shorts trying to beat your eight-year-old daughter in a fun run, while your son is left behind to get upset on his own! What are you trying to prove?”
Tom retaliated with venom: “What am *I* trying to prove? I’m not the one who spends the entire weekend making the child’s art project myself just to show off to the other parents! I’m not the one who barely lets the kids put their paintbrushes down before you’re frantically tidying around them in case a speck of paint touches the table! I’m not the one who forces them into extra French lessons they don’t need – that we can’t afford – just so you can show off that they can order a coffee and croissant! It sounds very much like you’re trying to control their lives and prove something to the world, Jess. But at what cost to your children? And at what cost to *me*?”
Jess stopped outside the house. His words hit her like a physical blow. For a moment, it felt like she was floating above herself, watching this scene happen to a stranger. Her mind whirled. The drizzle began to fall.
And then she looked at their children. Lily and Sam were staring, their eyes wide and mouths slightly open, fear carved into their little faces. That snapped her back.
“Right, kids – muddy trainers off, please, and go wash your hands. Brush your teeth again after all those sweets. Then you can watch an episode of something on the iPad, but only if you promise not to argue. Off you go.”
She didn’t check whether Tom followed. She focused on getting the kids inside, pulling off their welly-covered trainers, and sending them upstairs to calm down.
And so the silent treatment began.
For the rest of the day, Jess and Tom didn’t exchange a single word. The twins, wise little souls, became eerily quiet, as if they absorbed the thick, heavy atmosphere. They didn’t complain about the broccoli on their plates at Sunday lunch. Sam didn’t make his usual terrible joke about getting his “just desserts.” Instead, he practically inhaled his apple crumble just to escape the table.
After lunch, Tom retreated to his workroom. Jess played Junior Monopoly with the twins, but even Lily couldn’t be bothered to demand the dog token. She silently accepted the hat when Sam grabbed the little silver canine, and later, when she landed on his expensive, hotel-laden properties and had to pay him a fortune, she didn’t even complain. Sam didn’t crow or laugh either. Their quietness broke Jess’s heart in a whole new way.
She tried to fill the void with baking. She let them scrape the bowl, lick the spoons, and eat two fairy cakes each straight out of the oven. The sugar rush was subdued, still tainted by the tense cloud hovering over their home. Eventually, the twins crumbled into squabbling, and Jess cheerfully ignored it, plastering on her Mary Poppins smile and parking them in front of Junior Bake Off.
By evening, Jess was hollowed out. But as she finally sat down with a hot mug of tea, she found her mind wandering to Hannah’s earlier suggestion: she needed a proper break away from everything. Her meeting with the prospective buyer was scheduled for Tuesday in Cumbria – an easy drive from their home. But why rush back? Why not take more time?
She opened her laptop, typed “B&B Lake District” into Google, and began to scroll. Then she found it: a boutique bed and breakfast in Windermere called The Lakeside Nook. Huge double bed, roll-top bath, sweeping views of rolling hills, a pub within staggering distance, and breakfast cooked by the owner every morning. It sounded romantic. It sounded restful. It sounded like everything her soul was screaming for.
Without flinching at the price, she tapped in her card details. The confirmation email arrived in seconds. Four nights, starting Monday October 11, in the Ambleside Suite. Single person supplement applied.
Interesting. Single.
Jess shut her laptop, opened WhatsApp, and typed to Hannah:
“Hi Han, hope you’ve had a fab weekend. How did it go with Toby’s parents? I want to know everything! You’ll be pleased to know I’ve taken your advice and booked a few days away in the Lakes either side of my meeting on Tuesday so I won’t be in all week. I’ll check my emails now and forward anything you’ll need, and you can just WhatsApp me if there’s anything super urgent. Hope that’s okay x”
Hannah’s reply came instantly, as if she’d been glued to her phone:
“Yay, that’s fab news, J! You deserve it, and I’ll be fine keeping STD ticking along in the meantime. Are your parents looking after the kids? What did Tank (she meant Tom) say? I bet he’s so happy to be spending a whole week just you and him! Xxx”
Jess paused, then replied quickly before she could overthink it:
“Actually, it’s just me going. Tom will be looking after the kids. Bring on the wine! xx”
Her phone immediately lit up with multiple messages from Hannah. But Jess didn’t want to read them – not yet. She turned the phone face down on the table and padded upstairs to pack.
Somewhere between folding a jumper and choosing which book to bring, Jess felt an odd mixture of guilt and liberation. She loved her husband. She loved her children. But in that moment, the thought of four nights alone in a luxury B&B, with nothing to clean, no one to feed, no one to argue with, and no tiny hands to wipe – it was the best thing she could possibly imagine. And that, perhaps, was both her salvation and her greatest grief.
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**Reader’s Impressions & Star Rating:**
Well, whoa. This chapter hit me right in the chest. The Park Run scene was so painfully real – that moment when you fail at something tiny on a really bad day and it ruins everything. I felt Jess’s frustration over her welly, her sheer exhaustion, and I completely understood why she snapped when Tom judged her. Even though I adore Tom sometimes, this chapter exposed how invisible all of Jess’s relentless, unglamorous domestic work is to him. They both said terrible things, but I think deep down, this is less about who is right and more about a marriage where nobody feels seen anymore. Tom sounds like he feels unimportant, while Jess feels overwhelmed and unappreciated. And booking that solo B&B trip? That was a gut-punch twist. It shows Jess is craving a break not just from the kids, but from being “Tom’s wife” for a little while. I was completely captivated from start to finish, emotionally drained but begging for more.
⭐ Rating: 4.8 / 5 Stars
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**Next Chapter Prediction:**
I can already feel the tension building! Since Jess has deliberately booked the B&B as a solo trip, I predict Tom is going to see the booking confirmation or casually ask about her “work trip” and realize she’s deliberately taken time away from him more than just for business. That will definitely stir the pot to a full-blown explosion – or perhaps to a painful, honest conversation they desperately need. Meanwhile, with dinner with Toby’s parents looming in Hannah’s story, there may be another twist there as well. And in the Lakes, Jess might very well run into the buyer – and discover something surprising about herself, or something that changes the future of her business and her marriage forever. Grab your popcorn, folks, because chapter 21 is going to get very interesting!
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