“What brings a Pastor to watch football in a club?”
He smiled and responded,
“The same reasons that brought you here, only that I am not as judgemental as you are. Don’t tempt me to start speaking in tongues just to prove my legitimacy as a man of God. Haha.”
And that’s how we became friends. He is an easy man. He prays, he teaches and he tries to be a good human. And yes, we realized that we are both doing our Masters in the same university.
She looked at me and I immediately regretted having said those words. You see, marriage involves a lot of repetition, you will realize. And even more repetition if one partner is jobless and the other is giving them the silent treatment. She sat on the bed and finally said something.
“Look here Ben. I know I am supposed to go to work. Please stop singing about it. Just go and brush your teeth.
I say “Okay,” but I don’t move. You will learn this art in marriage – When to go away and when to stay put. I sit innocently at the chair right next to our dressing table, still holding my toothbrush with my left hand. Like a guilty child waiting for his mother to punish him. And I deserved to be punished.
“Ben, sometimes I feel so much hatred for you. I don’t have the perfect words to describe it. It’s a lot. And today, I woke up feeling it here in my chest – right here. Do you know how betrayal feels like? Well, you wouldn’t know. It’s so…”
She went away fully aware that whatever this date was about, her therapist would be glad to know that she is secretly an enabler of confusing people who keep coming back, after many years.
Sometimes they come back to confuse her, other times they help her find herself. And finally, perhaps, this could be a starting point of their therapy sessions.