Page 69 of Resisting the Fall

“Bennett’s fine.”

“Wonderful. I’m Elliot Hughes. Call me Elliot or Mr. Hughes, whichever you’re most comfortable with.” His gaze lowered. “I see on your intake papers this is a session fulfilling a court order for a reconciliation effort?”

“Yes,” I confirmed. “One of two. But, so you’re aware, we aren’t actually considering reconciliation. It’s just a formality before we can get our divorce.”

Mr. Hughes made another note, pushing up his dark-rimmed glasses as he wrote. His gaze lifted again. “To allow us all to speak openly and vulnerably here, I feel it’s important to mention that my job is not to push a reconciliation. My job is to help you assess your past relationship and see if there are ways to improve—ways to prevent destructive patterns in current or future relationships. So, if it’s all right, today I’d like to focus on deconstructing your relationship just enough that we can pinpoint those issues. Then, during the next session, we’ll discuss what we observed and strategies to prevent those patterns from being repeated. How does that sound?”

I glanced at the clock in the corner of my screen. Forty-seven minutes of deconstructing my relationship with Ben sounded like pure misery. But the only way forward was through. “What are we waiting for?”

Mr. Hughes seemed to appreciate my lackluster enthusiasm. “Why don’t we begin by each of you telling me a thirty-second version of how you met? Bennett, would you like to begin?”

“Sure.” He lifted his hands. “When I was ten, my dad was taking a few of us boys fishing and he invited Maven along.”

“So you two have known each other a while?”

Ben nodded. “Over two-thirds of our lives.”

My heart pinged at the reminder.

Mr. Hughes scratched something on his pad. “Do you have anything to add to the story, Maven?”

“Nope.” I liked Ben’s strategy of offering the bare minimum. This session was a box to check, nothing more. “That about sums it up.”

“Maven, can you tell me when you first realized you had feelings for Bennett?”

I let the question roll right off me like it didn’t matter. “Actually, that same day. Crush at first sight.”

“Bennett?”

“That’s a complicated question.” Ben leaned back in his chair, his hands intertwining and his thumbs tapping together. “I suppose I realized I was attracted to her during a school assembly. She played her violin in a talent show her freshman year, and… it just hit me like a freight train. She was so beautiful.” Ben lowered his gaze, thankfully at the same moment heat filled my cheeks. “From there, I started to take notice of her constantly. Where she was, what she was doing, who she was with. I couldn’t get her out of my head. She’s been stuck there ever since.”

I stared at Ben. I’d been stuck there ever since? What was that? A little show for Mr. Hughes? Something to spice this whole thing up so the poor man would feel like what he was doing here wasn’t totally pointless? I pulled out my phone.

Maven: Stop whatever that was!

Ben: You want me to lie to our therapist?

Maven:

Ben:

“Who would like to go first?” Mr. Hughes’s voice pulled my attention back to the screen, where Ben appeared as confused as I did.

“Sorry,” he said. “Can you repeat that?”

“I’d like each of you to tell me something about the other person you never quite understood: their worldview, opinions, or preferences.”

“She has horrendous phone etiquette.” Ben somehow kept a straight face.

“Ben has problems keeping appointments.” I was less successful in fighting my smile. “He missed two very important ones recently.”

Ben gestured to what I supposed was my position on his screen. “She loves New York City.”

“He dislikes the entire state of New York because he hates New York City so much.”

Mr. Hughes’s brows lifted, like he didn’t quite know what to make of us. “Should we discuss New York City?”

“No!” we both said in unison.