Colder than ice

'It's been written in the scars on our hearts'

Saturday 27th March 2038. (J-42, D-42, T-18, M-16)

'We promised.' The man tells the woman, 'We promised the kids.' She shakes her head, not meeting his eyes, instead focusing on a piece of gum on the ground.

'I don't see the point.' She argues back.

'We are doing this for the kids, they deserve it.' A sigh laves her lips as he opens the door for her. The first time he's done that in months. 'Come on Dianne it won't be that bad.'

'Says you.' The building that they've entered is tall, the pair of them walking to the third floor instead of taking the lift. They walk in silence, neither of them has anything to say to one another. The silence is a common occurrence now, sometimes they are okay, other times they aren't.

'Theo has an applicant day on Wednesday.' He tells her, after booking in. 'I'll take him.' The sentence falls on deaf ears, he's unsure whether it's deliberate or not, so he tries again. 'Matilda has dance tomorrow, are you taking her? Or am I?'

'You can.' She responds, proving his theory right. She was ignoring that sentence. 'I have stuff to-do.' He nods, his eyes scanning the room. There are two other couples here, each absorbed in their own conversation. Not them, she was more absorbed in her phone than him. She doesn't want to talk to him, some days she's like this. Other days she's okay. He has to be the strong one, the one who is okay. 'Zoe asked is it okay if she comes over next week, with Ella?'

'Why wouldn't it be?' She states. 'Can we stop talking, I don't like this small talk.' That shuts him up, getting out his phone. He has one new message:

Maddie: I'm going over to Lucy's tonight. Are you still okay to pick me up?

Dad: That's fine Maddie, I'll pick up you up at 10, if you get your dance stuff ready I'll bring it with me when I pick you up. If you ask nicely, Teddy might drop you off at Lucy's.

Maddie: Thanks dad.

He picks up the magazine next to him, not really paying attention to what the magazine says. He doesn't want to be here either, but he knows it's for the best. It's taken him six months to persuade Dianne to agree to this, claiming that they were fine. That was until he got their kids into the act, the three of them having harsh words with their mum. He looks up from the magazine, stealing a glance at the woman next to him. She hadn't really aged from when the pair first met. There were some obvious differences, she was older, but he still thought she was the prettiest thing on the planet. The pair met in secondary school, when she moved there in year eight, they were in the same form. He finally plucked up the courage to ask her out, properly, when they were in year ten. They had been joined at the hip ever since. Until now.

It hadn't been easy, Dianne falling pregnant at 21, they dealt with it. They were married by the time they were 23. He owned a thatching business, she was a hairdresser, working on TV shows on the BBC at the moment. They did okay for themselves. They had their rough patches, but who didn't? They were best friends, telling each other everything, from a shock pregnancy to their favourite TV show. Date night happened every Tuesday. They hadn't had a date night in over seven months, they hadn't had sex in three months. It's not like he doesn't want it, but he wouldn't press the issue. She wasn't feeling it, so he wouldn't ask for it. At this point they hadn't even slept in a bed together in over six weeks, the spare room had become his bedroom. She deliberately avoided him in the house, she didn't even see the kids all that much. Before, she would take them to school every morning, now that had fallen on Teddy, taking him and Maddie to school and back. They had changed too, Maddie choosing to spend more time around her friends, and Theo practically lived in the library, studying for his impending A levels. He wanted to be a doctor, and he decided that he couldn't study at home. Joe didn't blame him, if he was honest. He didn't have that excuse to be out of the house.

The cracks had been well hidden, until now. They were there, and they were crumbling. There roof was caving in on their relationship. He often wondered if it was him, they had both changed. He thought that they would be together forever, they were stable. They had been able to be there for the kids. They believed that they had been good parents, yet now he was starting to doubt it. They were morphing into his parents, on the verge of splitting up now their children were adults. Was it just the kids keeping them together? Surely, they still had things in common? They didn't talk about anything anymore, the silences seemed unending, unrelenting. They had survived so much, but now it looked like the end. Quite frankly, he didn't know what he was going to do, if this were the case.

He was dragged out of his thoughts as their names were called. He followed the woman that had called his name. This was an eerily similar situation to the time that they got dragged into isolation when they were in year ten, when they were throwing water over one another. Except this time, they weren't in trouble. They were here to salvage part of their marriage. He promised her that she could have the divorce, without any fuss, if she partook in this counselling. The ten sessions, that's all he wanted. He wanted that final shot. Caspar asked him why he bothered. He told him that he loved Dianne, and he couldn't just see her walk away. This was the final chance he had. He had to do it, for himself and the kids. He had consulted them when he first thought about it, they thought it was a good idea. Their worlds were falling apart too, they didn't need this. Both of them had very important exams coming up, and it wasn't fair for either of them to take their frustrations out on the kids.

'Welcome Mr and Mrs Sugg.' The woman says, as the pair sat on the chairs. The room warm and welcoming. He thought it would be sterile and clinical, he was pleasantly surprised. They did the introductions, they didn't drag out because they just wanted to start to session. She jumps straight to the point, 'Do you know the reason you are here?' The pair of them nod, they know when the problems started. Most of the stories he had read online were couples who didn't know what the problem was. This is what made them different, they knew what the issue was. The woman finally starts to speak, he notes how English she sounds. She still has the hint of the Aussie accent, but it wasn't prevalent anymore. It got stronger when she was in Australia, and the weeks after, but, for the most part, it was gone.

'Yeah.' She takes a deep breath. 'We are here because of Ruby.'

Thoughts?