CLA 101

CLA 101.

Titi shakes her head as she watches her husband put on his coat and tie and take a peek in the mirror, smiling at himself.
“Who are you dressing up for? Don’t come and tell me you’ll be working late today o,” she says unsmiling.
He gives her a peck as he heads towards the door. “I love you too hon.”
She snorts in response. “Don’t try to butter me up,” she mutters under her breath. He pretends not to hear.
She sprays on perfume, gives her hair a primping and heads off to work.
After an hour long meeting at work, her boss requests to see her.
“Mrs. Afolayan, I have noticed a decline in productivity from your department for the past three months. I want you to jeep a closer eye on your subordinates and scrutinize all their reports. As head of the department, I expect a lot from you.” he says looking at her levelly.
She sighs heavily and nods, barely able to keep her anger from showing. Was it her fault that the people working under her were incompetent? She had been trying to do the work all alone and all she could get from him was this humiliation. She has a sour look  at work throughout that day. When she gets home she is too dispirited to make dinner and sends a message to her husband Jide to pick up something on his way home.
Jide gets home an hour later bearing take away bags.
“How was your day?” he asks her as she collects the bags from him and places it on the table.
She hisses in response. “Can you imagine what my boss said to me today?” She begins her narration but Jide has already gone in to change his clothes and is out of earshot.
“Jide, are you listening to me?” she calls out.
“I’m coming honey,” he responds.
As they sit down to eat, she goes into lengthy detail about what her boss said, the way he said it and how he looked at her when he was saying it.
Jide looks at her thoughtfully. “Maybe you need to let him know which of your subordinates are giving you problems.”
She sighs heavily. “That’s not the point. The point is he was questioning my capabilities, like he was trying to say I did not know how to handle my subordinates.”
Jide looks quizzically at her. “Oh,” is all he says.
Titi’s mouth forms itself into a pout. “Is that all you’re going to say?” she asks, indignant.
“Well… be reasonable dear. I think your boss was just telling you to work on some things. That’s all.”
“So now I’m not reasonable abi?” Titi queries and storms off into the kitchen. Jide shakes his head, puts on the TV and gets absorbed in a game. He does not hear when Titi comes to join him on the sofa and asks him how his day was.
Later that night, Jide reaches for his wife. She fakes a snore.
Three months later, they are in line waiting to see Dr. Kolawole. The marriage counselor.
P.S: Can you identify what types of communication styles are displayed here? Suggest better ways of response for both Jide and Titi.