He could tell by her mannerisms that she was very nervous as she entered the office. But yet, when Colin extended his hand to greet her she gripped it firmly, looked him straight in the eye and smiled. Her smile struck him as warm and genuine. The kind of smile that makes you instantly at ease that that person. Her brown eyes were deep and soulful, almost sad in a way. Colin wanted to read more, but she had already averted her gaze, now staring at her feet as she sat down. Reseating himself behind his desk, Colin picked up his pen.

“Tell me what brings you here today?” he asked calmly.

“Well,” she ran her hand through her silky brown hair, pushing it behind her ears and letting the rest fall onto her slender shoulders. “It’s a series of events really.” Her voice shook slightly.

“Ok, then start at the beginning.” he told her in his most reassuring tone.

“Ok.” He could see her eyes become thoughtful and distant as she stared at the items on his desk. “It began a couple of months ago…”

Gretchen took a deep breath. The big lump of dread in her chest eased a tiny bit. She hated this. She hated having to be a part of this whole thing. But she couldn’t quit on the marriage either. She would never be able to live with the guilt. That was one of her inner problems. Her mistakes, no matter how small, clung to her forever. When she thought back on past errs, they would bring up the embarrassment, the guilt and whatever other emotions were attached to it. And those emotions felt just as strong as they were at the time she made the mistake in the first place. So strong in fact, that she had to distract herself with something else to keep herself from crying and feeling completely depressed. If she were to file for divorce, Charles would put all the blame on her shoulders. Making it sound like she didn’t try hard enough to keep the marriage together. Gretchen knew she would never, ever be able to get over that. If small mistakes haunted her this bad, she couldn’t even imagine what a divorce would do to her. So she stuck through the bad times. And life was good, for the most part. Until it came time to do “It” again.

Peering into the mirror, but carefully avoiding her own eyes, Gretchen applied bright red lipstick. Whenever she was upset or down she could never look into her eyes. It made her shudder. She had no idea why, but it did.

She slipped into her short summer robe and then spritzed some perfume onto her neck. Her heart jumped when the doorbell rang. She took another deep breath and slowly let it out.

“He’s here.” Charles called out to her.

“I know.” Gretchen popped the bathroom door open. Charles was sitiing at the computer in their master bedroom, browsing chat rooms. He looked at her and smiled lovingly.