Therapist EGD

One

I let out a huff of air as awkward silence fills the room. My husband and I sat on opposite sides of the couch, while the therapist sits across from us with his notepad on his lap, and pen in his hand.

We've been sitting here, for what feels like five minutes, as none of us talked. I kept my eyes on the pillow that was under my arm, as I played with the frizzles made of thread that outlined the pillow. The therapist was eyeing the both of us, clearly trying to read us. I don't know what Gavin was looking at or doing since I didn't want to even look at him at the moment.

Finally the therapist, Dr. Dolan, cut the silence with a sigh before speaking, making me look up to him. "Well, why don't we start?" He asked. More silence followed since I didn't know what to say. "Mrs. Woods, how about you start with why you signed up more marital counseling."

"To fix my marriage?" I asked, unsure. He nodded a bit and rested his head on the hand that held his pen.

"Why do you feel like your marriage needs fixing?" He asked.

I took a second to think of what to say and sighed. "I just- Things have changed between us."

"When do you feel like things have changed?" He asked, writing something down.

"After I had our son." I said. "So a little over a year ago."

He nodded again, and wrote more down. "Do you think postpartum depression could be a reason things have changed?"

I nodded my head and kept fiddling with the pillow. "On my end, yes."

He wrote more down and I heard Gavin chuckle just a half laugh. Dr. Dolan moved his eyes over to the other end of the couch.

"And Mr. Woods, why do you feel like your marriage needs fixing?"

"I don't." He said. "Come on, Mackenzie. This is stupid, or marriage is fine." He said sternly and could feel his eyes on me. I didn't look back to him though.

Dr. Dolan scribbled another note down. "So you'd say your marriage is 'fine' as you said?"

"Yeah. This is a waste of time." He said, probably rolling his eyes and I saw in the corner of my eye that he crossed his arms.

I could feel the therapists eyes moving back and forth from me to him. "Well it's clear from what I can see here that Mrs. Woods doesn't agree." He said. "You two are on opposite sides of the couch, and she won't even look at you. Doesn't that bother you, Mr. Woods?"

"She hasn't looked at me or been near me since she accused me of cheating. She'll get over it." Gavin said and the sound of pen on paper was all that was heard.

"Mrs. Woods." He said, waiting for me look up again but I kept my eyes on my lap. He cleared his throat and continued. "Can you explain why you thought he was cheating?"

I sighed and seeped back into the couch more. "I found emails on his laptop from a porn site. This girl, which was clearly a bot trying to get card information from him, had sent an email when I was using his laptop to order things for the baby. I know I shouldn't have clicked it and opened his mail, but then I saw the previous emails being sent back and forth."

"And what did the emails say?" He asked, stopping his note taking.

"Just things like 'prove to me that you're real first' and 'it could be fun to meet in person.'" I said.

"And when was this?" He asked, scribbling notes again.

"About six months ago." I said.

More silence besides the pen on paper noise filled the room while Dr. Dolan caught up on notes.