“You’re cheating on me!”

With a shrill shriek, Lydie slammed her hand onto the table, displacing the photographs she was using as evidence. “Look!”

Before the backdrop of an expensive cafe, Atlan was pictured to be having brunch with another woman. The woman was speaking, and he had a happy smile on his face, one that was of a bygone time once he returned home to Lydie‘s screaming.

“That’s my sister!” Jabbing a random photo, Atlan gestured angrily at himself in an attempt to show the family resemblance. “You literally have a picture of yourself with my family on your phone! She’s in it!”

Brandishing her phone like a weapon, a scroll through the phone’s camera app revealed the named photo, proving Atlan‘s words. Anger melting away like butter in a hot pan, Lydie pouted, crossing her arms. “Don’t you know how hard it was for me to see you having brunch with a beautiful woman?”

Without missing a beat, Atlan winked, blowing a kiss across the table to Lydie. “Baby, you know that you’re the most beautiful woman in the world in my eyes.”

Lydie swooned. “Honey, you’re so sweet!”

Launching herself across the table and into his arms, the couple stared adoringly at each other, trading sweet words of affection.

You, who was sitting in a chair nearby watching the entire thing unfold, was still reeling from the whiplash of emotions. On the notepad you held, half finished sentences and single words filled the page, the fruits of your honest attempt in following along to their argument. Risking another glance at the couple who were now furiously making out with each other, you turned a page of your notepad, writing down ‘messy’ in small meticulous letters at the top.

It was only the second session of couples therapy, and you still couldn’t tell if the couple was terribly or perfectly suited for each other.

At the very least, you can claim that this session was going far better for you than the first.

When they first arrived, Lydie had been downright hostile to you for most of the session, claiming that you ‘are trying to charm her beloved away from her’. Before you could even begin to calm her down, the situation was only made worse as Atlan told her to ‘stop harassing the pretty and nice therapist’.

After a good hour of back and forth, and many many promises that Atlan wasn’t your type (of which she promptly got very offended about and became even more angry at you for not seeing how amazing he is), Lydie finally calmed down. There was only time in the session left for a brief chat to get acquainted, and then the couple was off after scheduling their next session.

You had hoped to begin to get to the heart of the matter this session, but it seems like such a task was going to be near impossible.

“Let’s go out to your favorite restaurant today, yeah?” Atlan leaned down, brushing a kiss against Lydie‘s cheek.

She sighed, staring up adoringly into his eyes. “That sounds amazing, honey.”