I sat anxiously in the waiting room for the marriage counselor, checking the clock every few seconds. Our appointment was minutes away, and Nick wasn't here yet. The door to the counselor's room opened and she and a client stepped out, chatting about something cheerfully.
"Have a nice weekend," she said as the client left before turning to me with a warm smile and extended hand. I stood up from the chair and shook her hand. "Emily is it? I'm Kristine. I need to run to the restroom, but if you'd like to go into my office I'll be right back."
"Sounds good," I said quietly. I headed into her office and sat down on one end of the small sofa. It was a homey office and felt cozy, unlike what I had expected. I had half anticipated a sterile space like a doctor's office. The door to the waiting room opened and closed and I heard footsteps across the room. Nick peered into the room and let out a sigh of relief when he saw me.
"Sorry I'm late," he said. He kissed me on the head and sat down on the couch next to me.
"We haven't started yet so you're barely on time," I said with laugh. He chuckled softly next to me. Moments later Kristine joined us.
"Oh welcome," Kristine said, shaking Nick's hand. "I'm Kristine."
"Nice to meet you, I'm Nick," he replied. Kristine sat down at her office chair across from us and pulled a notepad from her desk next to her. She wrote down a couple things before looking back at us.
"Well, what brings you two here?" she asked. Nick and I looked at each other before looking back at her.
"I don't know where to start," I said hesitantly.
"It's okay, a lot of my clients feel that way in the beginning," Kristine said with a knowing nod. "How about I start with some questions to sort of, build a history between you two, and we can go from there?" I nodded and looked at Nick who nodded as well.
Kristine asked us questions about how we met, how long we had been together, what we did for work, and before I knew it our issues started revealing themselves. I primarily talked, Nick only ever chimed in a few times when coaxed by Kristine. Eventually she started asking him more of the questions directly instead of posing them to us both.
"And what about quality time together? What do you guys like to do?" Kristine asked.
"I mean, before all of this started happening we would go hiking, go on weekend trips, cook together, watch movies together," I said. Kristine nodded, jotting down notes. "Now it seems like all we ever do is watch a movie together. And by watch a movie I mean I fall asleep usually and Nick's on his phone nearly the whole time."
"That's not true," Nick scoffed. I opened my mouth to respond but Kristine jumped in with a question.
"Why do you say that, Nick?" She asked him. Nick shrugged.
"I wouldn't be on my phone if it was a movie I enjoyed watching. We're always watching her artistic movies she likes and I just can't stand those movies," he replied.
"Well what types of movies do you like?" Kristine asked.
"I really like psychological movies. Or gritty movies. Like No Country for Old Men is one of my favorite films," he said. Kristine looked at me.
"I personally don't like those types of movies," I said. "I can't handle the violence. And Nick loves The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson. That's an 'artsy' movie. He's the one who introduced me to the movie."
"Movie genre differences aside," Kristine said. "Is the phone thing an issue outside of 'movie time'?"
"Yes."
YOU ARE READING
Always You - A Second Chance Romance
Romance"Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed." - Leo Tolstoy When Emily Wright married her husband, Nick, she thought he was the man of her dreams. But less than a year into being married, Nick has grown...
