Dear Luv Doc,
Last January my boyfriend and I relocated to Austin so he could take a job as an attorney. This was/is a great opportunity for someone just coming out of law school, so I encouraged him to go for it. I was working a retail sales job while he was going to law school. It paid well, but we decided that I can do sales anywhere, so I quit my job so we could be together. To help him hit the ground running, I got us unpacked and moved in (after the movers, of course) and I have been doing almost all of the household chores (he does his own laundry) – cooking, cleaning, planning dates, running errands. I feel like this was a fair situation because I wasn’t working, but in June I got a job as a regional sales rep, and now I have to travel a few times a month. He has picked up a little of the slack … walking the dog, doing dishes, feeding himself, etc., but there is one thing he doesn’t want to do that really upsets me. He gets annoyed when I ask him to pick me up from the airport. I don’t ask for a lot, so I don’t think it’s too much to ask him to pick me up – especially when I get in at night. I almost always take an Uber when I fly out because it’s usually during the work day, but when I get back home it’s nice to know I have someone to pick me up. We are only a 15-minute drive from the airport, but he thinks it’s a huge waste of his time. He doesn’t care that it makes me feel like I am being taken for granted. I’m not some needy, emotionally insecure person. I just want to feel like he takes care of me and that in this one part of our lives, I am the priority. Do you think this is unreasonable? Does everybody hate the airport as much as he does? Love the column BTW. It’s a coffeehouse must.
Alone on Arrival
I once had a pickup guitar player who was a lawyer. He tried to smooth over a pay discrepancy one time with the well-worn aphorism, “I’m not an asshole because I’m a lawyer, I’m a lawyer because I’m an asshole.” I know he was joking, but was he? It was a little bit hard to tell. He seemed like a decent enough guy up to that point. I haven’t had a lawyer pickup guitarist since, but that’s pretty much just luck of the draw. I’m sure there’s probably one in my future somewhere. I’m hoping she/he won’t be an asshole, just like I am hoping that your boyfriend isn’t as much of an asshole as it sounds like he is.
And look, I’m not trying to make some sweeping statement about the temperament of people in the legal profession. Can they be contentious? Probably. I’ve seen Suits. That Harvey dude seems like a bit of a dick, but if he wasn’t, it wouldn’t be a drama. Or maybe it’s a comedy? I wonder if lawyers think it’s a comedy? Anyway, you might well have drawn this card with a boyfriend in any number of professions, so I won’t throw him under the bus (unless my lawyer tells me there’s money in it). What I will say is … uh … he’s quacking like a duck, which is the gentlest way I can come up with to say he’s behaving like a petulant toddler.
You are 15 fucking minutes from the airport?!?! That probably means you live in Del Valle, because like 90% of the rest of Austin is a couple of light years away even in the mildest of Austin traffic. Your boyfriend needs to suck it up, be a decent human being, and pick his girlfriend up from the airport. The fuck, bro? Maybe bring along some herbal tea or sippy cup full of Cabernet just in case the flight was a little bumpy. But just sitting at home while your girlfriend lugs her suitcase the sweat-drenched quarter-mile to the rideshare lot is fucking unacceptable. I once heard someone refer to that walk as the Trail of Tears. That tracks.
As a non-lawyer, the best way I can litigate my case is to further prosecute yours: After all you’ve done for him – all while apparently successfully seeking gainful employment – the absolute least he can do for you is make a 15-minute drive to the airport twice a month. And, for the record, other than the aforementioned Trail of Tears and certain festival weekends, I actually do like the Austin airport. As far as I know, it’s the only airport in America with Doña and live music.
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This article appears in September 4 • 2026.
