Saving My Marriage
Chapter 2
We sat for breakfast a simple breakfast of cold cereal and fruits. The kids laughed as they ate but mostly played. I stared darkly at RJ. He pretended not to notice me and just sat calmly eating his breakfast.
“I thought about our talk last night,” I said.
“Really,” he said. “I didn’t think much about it at all. I feel like a weight is lifted off my shoulders and a bright future awaits me.”
This made me almost lose it but I didn’t want to yell at my husband in front of the kids.
“I was looking at some studio apartments,” he continued. “We’ll work out some details after work.”
“No,” I insisted, “we should talk about this now.” He was already running out the door.
“This discussion is not finished,” I raced after him, yelling at him out into the srete. But he’d already gotten into the automated cab.
I tried not to think about what RJ had said as I pushed my mind into my work but it was impossible. I showed a pleasant face to our patients who really were going through a lot larger of a struggle than I was.
Before the invention of the neural bridge, people with severed spinal coords would never walk again. However, there was a lot of physical therapy that went into getting them up and walking again, mostly due to damaged reflexes. It required a lot of customized learning for each patient and the machine to relearn walking, running and even dancing. In the end though, almost everyone would be up and walking normally again within a year. The device on their back would be nearly transparent and could event be surgically implanted into one of their bones.
I was constantly rethinking how to make these devices better. It wasn’t seen as too scary in this day and age to have computers assist your central nervous system.
“Hey google,” I said into my WCI. A small ringing sound played to let me know it was listening. “I need to find a good marriage counsellor.” Almost immediately a list came up along with anonymized reviews from people I knew. There were some there that it looked like I could only barely afford. Apparently even google realized that looking for a marriage counsellor is a desperation move.
I read some of the reviews: “He was very professional but in the end we realized that divorce was in our best interest. His technique involved a lot of talking.”
“She was hard to work with, our marriage was saved but there were a lot of compromises we both made. I used some drugs she recommended that made me stop my angry rages against my wife.” This one was written by a man with anger issues.
“Dr Jain didn’t see us much, but she didn’t need to. She had the right technology to solve our problems.” This was the review from one of the much more expensive therapists. There were other reviews there too, a lot. All about the variety of amazing technologies that Dr. Jain deployed to solve couples problems.
When I got home, RJ was there playing with the kids. He had a sparkle in his eye. Like he had just found a new life.
“I hired a sitter,” I said. “We’re going out to dinner to talk.”
“That’s a great idea Jess,” he said. “We need to work out some details.”
When we got to the restaurant I asked for a quiet table. The computerized waiter displayed the menu and waiving my hand I could see a 3D rendering of what it would look like. I customized the meal and the countdown timer started to let me know when it would be ready.
“So,” I said.
“So,” he said.
“Look,” I said. “I didn’t even know we were going through a rough time in our marriage. I want a solution. We should try. We are such good friends and we work so well together. The kids adore you. We need to make this work.”
“Well,” he said, “from my point of view, we can still be good friends, the kids can still adore me and we can still work well together. I just need to live elsewhere and have some sex. I didn’t become a monk or a priest for a reason. I know what my body needs and I just can’t get that if we’re going to have the type of marriage that we have.”
I put my hands down on the table spread out and looked him deep in the eye. “I want to do counseling.”
“Jess, I don’t know if that will change anything. What is wrong between us is physical and I just don’t think counseling can fix that” RJ replied. “I don’t want to do it. Can’t you just accept that I need to move on.”
“Come on honey,” I countered, “we could just try for a while.” Then I figured I still had something to bargain with. “If you agree to counseling for just a month I’ll make your night a really good one.”
I waved my hands in front of my WCI to bring the automated cab to pick us up. We’d both had a few glasses of wine and it felt good to be going home a little drunk. I brought up the interface for the house to see if the kids were in bed. They were sounds asleep. Perfect. I was going to give him some tonight.
After we’d brushed our teeth and gotten ready I lay down waiting for him to start.
He wasn’t though. Didn’t he even find me attractive anymore? He just lay back eyes still open looking up.
I reached over and held his hand. “Come on, don’t you want to. Don’t you love me?”
“Well I want to,” he said. “But if I suppose if it doesn’t happen tonight I can skip the couples therapy. Don’t you want to?”
I didn’t want to. I just needed him to come and do therapy with me, so we could fix whatever problems we had and get this little stage he was having over with. I couldn’t really say that though, I needed to have some leverage to get him to behave. He was being such a selfish animal.
He continued, “I just need something back from you or I might as well get a blow up doll.”
What crap! I couldn’t take any more so I grabbed him. I shook him really hard. He smiled. I was getting ready to give him a slap. Violence isn’t really something I do well but he had it coming.
Before I had a chance he grabbed one of my arms and one of my legs and flipped me over onto my belly. Then he sat on top of my hips pinning me down. He pulled off my pants and his. I could feel him enter me from behind. It wasn’t the best angle so to help him out I pushed my hips up to give better access. I was able to get a little wet to allow it to not hurt. It felt alright but this was not a position I would normally let him do. I preferred a missionary.
I was really quite trapped and had no choice but to let him continued pumping. After a while RJ let out a moan. I gave him an ahhh to make him feel good. The he was done. After sex was alwas an awkward time. Its when we would get out some tissues and I’d let drizzle out what he’d put into me.
In the end I’d gotten what I’d wanted and he’d gotten what he’d wanted hadn’t he?