WWW • prettymuch

Love Language: part two

                           NICK sat in the office in silence, he got there fifteen minutes ago, and they made no progress past his name. He didn't want to be there and he didn't think he needed to be there but he promised he would come and he was a lot of things but a liar wasn't one of them.

"Mr. Mara" the counselor drew his attention from the spot on the floor he was starring at, he looked up to her, body stiff and a scowl upon his face, if you didn't know any better you would think he was being held hostage here. "Do you know why you're here?"

"Imani thinks we have problems" he mumbled.

"You don't?" She asked him

"Not any that's anyone else's concern" he said and there it was, the reason for his resentment.

"I'm not here to judge you Mr. Mara, I'm here to help" she opened her notebook to a fresh page. "What do you think you and Imani's biggest issue is with your relationship?"

"our communication" he complied, he knew that if he didn't go through with this at least a little he was making it harder on him and Imani.

"That's funny because that's what she also said" the counselor wrote something down in her notebook and nick was starting to feel judged and suddenly very self conscious about his relationship.

"What do you think is the issue you're having with communicating" she eyed him

He thought about it for awhile, his mind racing with every argument they've ever had comparing them and pointing out the similarities between them.

"She doesn't listen to me" he said quietly, the words rolling off his tongue like a secret he wasn't supposed to tell.

"Is she supposed to listen to you?" The counselor pressed him.

"Not in a controlling way, because I would never try to control her, but I just want her to take my feelings into consideration sometimes." He ranted on, pouring out all of the things he never gets to say directly to Imani.

"How does she not take your feelings into consideration" the counselor pressed him again, and he inwardly rolled his eyes.

"she probably told you about our last fight right?" he asked

"It May have come up" she said and jotted something else down in her notes, nick tried not to think about what she was writing about him. He hated the feeling of judgment that rose every time she scribbled something down in that notebook

"Well if she didn't, I'll fill you in" he leaned forward a bit on the sofa "we share a mutual friend edwin, great guy I've known him for years and one day they went out together dinner, drinks, movies the whole shebang, I wasn't notified about any of this. I was left wondering where she was only to have edwin bring her home after"

"And did you tell her how the situation made you feel?"

"I expressed to her that I was uncomfortable with her hanging out with my friends without me" he ran a hand through his hair to ease the current frustration building up as he recalled their latest fight.  "She told me I don't own her which is true but I still continued to try to let her know the situation made me uncomfortable, I told her that I wasn't comfortable being left in the dark and she took that as me accusing her of cheating when I was just trying to tell her that not knowing if she's safe or not made me want to lose my shit"

"So it sounds like the situation wasn't really about her hanging out with Edwin, it was more of you not having a clue where she was for a few hours" the way the counselor said it made it sound like nick was being controlling, it debunked all of what he initially said he was feeling as he started to think about how Imani saw everything that night.

"When you put it like that, I can see where I come off as controlling." he told her

"Great, now that I have you and Imani on a similar page, I want to bring her in. I know she's in the waiting room waiting for you, but if you could just grab her for me that would be great"

Nick stood up and walked out of the office, when he reached the hallway and heard the door shut behind him he was finally able to let out the breath he's been holding since his arrival. He was okay with the way things were going before and he was okay with Imani sitting in during the next session but he was a little scared that they would go up in flames based on the information that they gave the counselor.

"She wants to see us both" he told Imani who looked up from the couch she was sitting on scrolling through her news feed on Instagram.

"Now?" She questioned, as she tucked her phone away and stood up, following nick back into the office, they both took a seat opposite of one another. A strained silence filled the room. The nervousness radiating off of both Imani and nick.

"Do you both love each other?" The counselor asked breaking the silence, an incredulous look passed on nicks face. But he stayed silent and waited for Imani to answer the question.

"Yes" she answered before turning to nick, wondering if their answers matched

"More than anything" he said.

"Good, that gives me confidence that you will fight for your relationship after this. Lack of communication is a huge downfall in a relationship, I've seen it ruin even the best ones. If you both can't learn to see eye to eye and have a decent conversation there is no future for you. Now Nick I want you to tell Imani about what you told me" the counselor said. Imani turned to face nick ready to bear whatever issues he dropped in his session.

"I wasn't trying to control you. I don't mind you hanging with Edwin he's as much of your friend as he is mine. My issue was always with how you never took my feelings into consideration. You don't have to ask for permission to do things, but it wouldn't hurt you to at least let me know when you're doing them" nick ranted.

"So you don't want to control me but you want to know my every move" Imani questioned puzzled.

Nick gave out a frustrated sigh. "That's not what I said and you know it, I would like to know when you're going to be home late, or where you are. Not because I'm wanting to know your every move but because I worry. There's a lot of terrible shit happening in this world and I don't want you to fall victim to it."

Imani now understanding nicks side of things felt like an idiot for not taking the fact that he could just be worried about her into consideration.

"I'm sorry" she said "sometimes I'm too thick skinned for my own good, I don't mean to worry you. And I'll try to be more open about things like that if you try to be more reasonable with me, and try to not be such a short fuse"

"See compromises, this is good. This is healthy. You're both in a space where you can communicate and come up with a solution for the both of you"

Imani smiled slightly, they both thanks the counselor and went through a few more tips before they were eventually dismissed from their session.

"Thanks for coming today, I know this was something you were initially wary about" Imani said as she gripped nicks hand in hers and leaned against him slightly as they fell into a rhythmic step with each other.

"Anything for you mani, I'm sorry our relationship hasn't been the best lately but I'm glad we're on the path to being okay" nick told her. He was stressed about the session the last thing he wanted was to leave without Imani in his arms but he was hopeful they would be okay.

The communicating would take awhile to be set in place but neither of them want to lose each other so it's something he didn't mind spending time working towards.

He watched as Imani let go of his hand and basically snatched the keys from him making a dash to the driver side of the Jeep.

"I'm driving" she said sticking her tongue out and climbing into the seat, nick following and getting into the passenger side, a huge smile playing on his face. Yeah it was definitely worth the time to fix things between them. She was worth holding on to.

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HI SHES HERE!!! the end of WWW, whew the end of an era, I was terrified writing pm fics on this app and letting people actually read my work. I know I'm not the best writer but thank you  all for sticking around and helping me see the end of this book through. 💞