A Small Deception for a Greater Good

I'm a professor in my forties who has been married for twenty years. Despite the stability and love we share, I have something to confess that is quite trivial but still gnaws at me slightly. A few months ago, our university library underwent renovations, closing off access to rare books for several weeks. During this period, I received an invitation from a colleague to join her for a research trip to a nearby city with a renowned academic archive. Without informing my spouse, who was traveling for work and unavailable at the time, I accepted and spent two days exploring those archives alone, pouring over old manuscripts relevant to my field. In retrospect, I could have spared him this omission, but I felt guilty about the hassle of coordinating our schedules during such a busy time for both of us. It seems silly now to worry about such a small matter, but I couldn't help feeling dishonest in not sharing every detail of where I was or what I did on that research trip.