"Separate?" Bruce asked. "Is that what you really want?"
Adriana shook her head sadly.
"No...I wish there was a way I could work on trusting you and desiring you again while not leaving you deprived at the same time," she said.
"I do not want to be apart from you," Bruce said. "I understand you're not ready to just...jump back in and be intimate with me but I also don't want to be a bother to you-"
"You're not a bother Bruce," Adriana said. "That's why we are here...we're here to talk about everything we didn't before-"
"If I may," Dr. Kapoor interrupted their conversation.
"Yes?" Adriana turned to him.
"When you contacted me last night, Bruce," Dr. Kapoor said. "I did warn you that by me as your therapist and knowing you both so well, that this session could be derailed by either of you jumping the gun. It seems you to are now having a conversation on your own. This is not going to effectively solve your problems. You both haven't allowed me to direct the therapy."
"Dr. Kapoor," Bruce said. "What else can we do? We can't see another therapist. How would we explain everything? No one would understand why I got so upset about Adriana taking Arsenio to see...that man. No one would understand that unless they knew who he was-"
"I'm sure you can both find a way to describe him in a discreet way," the doctor said. "I've done my best to be unbiased however it seems the two of you...have a bias that negates that. You are not acknowledging me as the therapist at this point. You see me as a close friend you can discuss your issues in front of. Perhaps...the barrier of someone unfamiliar will help this to go better?"
"We need something different," Adriana said. "I agree. This whole...discussion seems to be just making everything worse."
Adriana said nothing and looked at Dr. Kapoor.
"We'll see someone else," she said.
.
.
.
"His name is Dr. Andrew Foster," Bruce said to Adriana as they had lunch. "He can see us tomorrow...or we can wait until next week if you need a break from..."
"Therapy and honesty?" Adriana said while swirling a spoon in her tomato soup.
"Yes," Bruce said.
"We can go tomorrow," she said, still moving the spoon in small circles and looking down into the liquid.
"You have to know that," Bruce said. "I would never sleep with other women. Even if you gave me permission to. I want no one but you. In therapy you said-"
"Dr. Kapoor said we shouldn't discuss the things we talked about in therapy until we see another therapist at least once," she said in response.
"Yes," Bruce said plainly in response.
The were quiet, neither of them eating or looking at each other.
"I..." Adriana said quietly, still holding her spoon. "I love you, Bruce."
"I love you too," he said.
Bruce reached for her free hand that was resting on the table.
"And I'm afraid," she said. "I'm afraid because...what else can we say that we didn't say today? I'm not sure anyone can help us."
"I'm sure there's a lot we haven't said..." Bruce said.
"I don't see how that's possible," Adriana sighed. "And if there's more that we need to deal with...it's going to be even harder with a stranger that doesn't know us and everything that we do and everything we've gone through."
"We can do this," Bruce said.
Adriana wasn't so sure, but she knew that she was going to try.
Bruce then pulled out his phone with was vibrating.
"I have an idea," Bruce said and gave her a smile that made her curious.
"Oh?" she asked.
"There's something...moderately urgent in the city," he said. "We could go together."
"Together? But...I'm not supposed to for a few days," she said.
"You won't have to do anything but keep watch, make sure I'm hidden," Bruce said. "And..hey...when the police show up, maybe you could take credit for it all, after all you will be useful."
Adriana gave Bruce a brilliant smile and threw her arms around him.
"Ayyyy," she beamed before kissing him. "Mi amor.."
"Vamos," he said on her lips.
