Mike and Barb during break in relationship skills training class.

[Originally published in Times of Israel.]

For the first hour in the workshop, their eyes never met.

Entering the small hotel conference room within a few inches of each other, the gulf between the couple betrayed canyons of anger, hostility and despair as they dragged themselves like two people who’d had their knees broken to a last chance weekend for a miserable marriage from which both seemed eager to flee.

Yet they were there, in the room, together.

Moments earlier, her eruption as Mike searched for parking came close to ending even this last chance leap of faith before it ever began.

“We better have two rooms,” she mumbled quietly at first as he rounded the ramp from P2 to P3.

As had become custom, Mike didn’t respond.

“Do we have two rooms?” she said more as a demand a few seconds later.

More silence from Mike as he hurried their leased black Kia Optima towards what he thought were backup lights and the chance for a decent parking space close to the lobby elevator. Barbara likely knew Mike had avoided both the free valet and more distant open parking spaces to be sure he’d leave the car where he could make a quick get away if and when the need arose.

“Two rooms!” Barbara belched into the windshield, unwilling to even look at her husband of 15 years as he waited for the shiny red Volkswagen Beetle to back out of the spot he was determined to claim.

As he turned off the ignition, he looked at Barbara for the first time since they left their home an hour earlier. She stared straight into the filthy wall of the parking garage as Mike responded to the side of her face. For a moment, he remembered another time long ago they’d pulled into a similar space in a parking lot not far away from where they were now. That night, they hadn’t hesitated for a moment to enjoy a few minutes of passion before meeting friends for dinner. “Where is that woman?” Mike wondered to himself.

Full article here.

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Tagged as: couples, marriage, Marriage Education, marriage problems, relationship skills

Categorised in: American Life, Marriage Education, PAIRS Foundation