I left my wife behind at the airport and I’m not sorry

Starbucks is awfully expensive these days — but it may have cost one man his marriage.

An anonymous traveler revealed on Reddit that he recently left his wife holding the bag — and her skinny no-foam latte — in an airport departures lounge after she snuck away from the boarding gate for a quick coffee, shortly before their transcontinental flight was due to take off.

The shock confession, posted only days ago to the Two Hot Takes subreddit, has already reeled in nearly 8,000 comments. Many users were unequivically supportive of the deserting dad, who was determined to get to the East Coast to see his daughter at college — even if it meant the fight of the century with his left-behind spouse.

The 47-year-old man, from the Pacific Northwest, began by explaining that traveling with his 43-year-old wife “is not a great experience.”

He describes himself as a Type A person while his wife is “the opposite.”

“I like to have everything organized and make sure that we get where we need to be early, especially when traveling,” he said.

“My wife is the opposite, very ‘go with the flow’ and ‘we will get there when we get there.’”

The couple have been together for over a decade; the daughter is from the man’s previous marriage. She is now in college on the other side of the country, and the couple travel there as often as possible to see her.

The man explained that he had been on edge leading up to the couple’s most recent trip because last year his wife’s antics caused them to miss their original flight to visit their daughter.

She slept in after he tried to wake her five times and then decided to take a shower, make coffee and eat cereal as he anxiously waited to get to the airport.

By the time his wife was finally ready and they made it to the gate, their flight had taken off without them.

They missed out on two days they had planned to spend with their daughter and he was determined to spend as much time as possible with this girl this time.

“Due to the last airport mishap, I wanted to make sure I told her we needed to leave extra early as to not miss the flight again,” he said, noting that he still had to push his wife to move along.

This time the couple made it to their gate with some time to spare, which eased the man’s mind but “annoyed” his wife who continued to complain about having to wait to board the plane.

The couple made it onto their first flight without any issues and landed with less than an hour until their connecting flight.

The second gate was far away, so the couple had to take multiple trains. They arrived in their departure area with just 15 minutes to spare.

His wife then decided that she wanted a cup of coffee, but refused his offer to buy her something at the little market next to their gate, insisting that she needed Starbucks coffee — a train ride away.

“I told her we couldn’t do that, we didn’t have enough time,” he recounted remembering that his wife claimed there was “enough time” and would go by herself if he wouldn’t join her.

“I tried to discourage her but she was determined. She walked away, at a brisk pace for her, and said she would be back in time,” the man said.

Fifteen minutes went by and the plane started boarding but his wife had not returned.

“I called my wife hoping she was near by,” he said. “She didn’t answer.”

“They called a few groups, then called ours. In a panic I called my wife again, 3 times, finally on the last call she answered and said she was on her way, it was a long line and she had to wait a bit. I told her they were almost done with boarding and she needed to hurry up.”

The man claimed that he waited at the gate until a crew member told him that the door needed to be closed in two minutes meaning he needed to get in his seat or get off the ramp.

He insisted that “he tried to plead” with the airline worker but was told the plane could not be held up any longer.

“So, I boarded the plane,” he said.

His wife called him a few minutes after he settled into his seat.

“She told me I needed to tell them to let me off the plane to be with her and I said ‘No.’ It is not fair to do this again…I said I told you we didn’t have time but you decided to go anyways,” the man said.

He told his wife to buy a ticket for the next flight, and left to enjoy the weekend with his daughter.

In speaking with his wife over the weekend, the subject hardly came up, he said.

“I thought maybe she realized it was her fault and just wanted to drop it.”

Once the couple were reunited back home, he realized how wrong he was.

“We are now home and she hasn’t talked to me since the trip, over a week ago, and is insisting that I am an a–hole,” the man revealed.

“I stopped being the caretaker for my partner after the first time we missed a flight,” one Redditor sympathized — admitting that one time he left them behind after they failed to make a connection to catch a 10-day cruise.

“He’s never been late again,” they said.

“Sit down and tell your wife that you love her and you cherish her but the way she disrespects your desire to be punctual is just too much. Tell her that from now on you’re going to make separate arrangements when traveling,” another offered.

“Your wife is acting like a entitled child. No, we’re not holding the plane up so she can get coffee,” still another fumed.

One suspicious commenter offered up a slightly more sinister reason for the wife’s baffling behavior.

“Be careful, it seems…that your wife only tolerated your daughter and wants to keep you away from her now that she’s an adult,” they warned. 

Days later, after receiving over 18,000 upvotes, the original poster returned with an update — his wife was speaking to him again. For now.