The Marriage Intervention (6 page)

***

After signing The Rules document during Happy Hour Thursday night, Josie went home, heated up some leftovers for dinner and ate them while watching a rerun of
Friends
.
 

Then she went to bed. Alone.
 

She was too exhausted to think about The Marriage Intervention, The Rules, or Paul and she slept a deep, dreamless sleep.
 

The next morning, though, as she slipped out of bed before her alarm went off, she thought about the questions Summer and Delaney asked her the night before.
 

How often did they have sex? She said once a month, but even that was generous. How often did they even have eye contact? Once a month? Maybe.
 

Things hadn’t always been this way. It took several years for their relationship to evolve into its current state.

In the early days, she felt giddy just thinking about him. She’d wait up for him to get home from work, just so she could hear about his day and tell him about hers. They’d sit at the kitchen counter, her in a robe and him in his uniform pants and an undershirt, and talk half the night.
 

She survived on barely any sleep and lots and lots of sex.
 

During this period of time, she missed her mother with a fierce longing. She could imagine Mama examining Josie’s face with her shrewd eyes, and saying things like, “You see,
mija
? You are happy. You have
el pasión
. Real passion. Because you married for practicality and not for romance.”
 

Just after their first anniversary, Paul went undercover. That was the first curve of the downward spiral.
 

His facial hair got longer, and so did his hours. He pulled all-nighters waiting for Phoenix drug dealers to make deliveries to Juniper. He contracted with sleazy informants, took calls at all hours of the day and night, and several times had to leave family functions to take someone down.
 

Not that it was all his fault, Josie thought now. After drying off, she began dressing in the outfit she had hung in the bathroom the night before. She tried to be understanding. She tried to embrace Paul’s new position. He was good at it, he enjoyed it and the overtime checks were a nice bonus. She learned to appreciate her nights alone watching girly TV shows and reading cheesy romance novels.
 

Over time, though, she began to resent his frequent absences. And one night, while they were making what she thought was really passionate love, he froze.
 

“What’s wrong?” Josie said.
 

“Nothing. Just hold on a minute.”
 

He leapt out of bed, grabbed a notepad and a pen, and began scribbling away like a madman.
 

“What are you doing?” she asked.
 

“I just thought of something. This could be a major breakthrough. Vasquez couldn’t have seen Davis at the bowling alley. He was being questioned that same night by the guys from Phoenix Metro. It just came to me.”
 

He looked up at her then, excitement shining in his eyes. “Hold on, okay, baby? Hold on just one minute. I’ve got to make a call.”
 

He left her there, laying on her back on their messy bed.
 

“Oh, Mama,” she said to the ceiling. “I didn’t marry for romance, but I didn’t marry for this, either.”
 

That was the first time, but it wasn’t the last. Not that he interrupted their lovemaking again, but he did disconnect, emotionally, over and over. So she followed suit. She made herself the unavailable one, staying late at school, running unnecessary errands, shopping for new shoes she didn’t need.
 

When they were together, she was short with him. Snippy. She picked at him for leaving his dishes in the sink rather than putting them in the dishwasher. She criticized the TV shows he watched and the amount of beer he drank. He switched to whiskey. Of course, he came back at her, his own criticisms sharp and observant. She never squeegeed the shower door. She always left her wet towel on the bathroom counter. When she got home from work she took her shoes off at the front door and left them in the walkway.

And now here they were: adversaries living together in a constant state of discord, each of them always looking to strike before the other could get in a good hit.
 

***

On the short drive to Juniper Elementary that morning, Josie made a decision. She decided to begin again with Paul. She decided she would repair their marriage, not because Summer and Delaney insisted, but because she wanted to. She just had to make Paul see reason. She wanted her marriage to get back to where it was before that downward spiral. Or maybe not where it was exactly, but somewhere close.
 

The parking lot was still empty except for one other car. Dread, cold and clingy, crawled up the back of Josie’s neck at the thought of running into that car’s owner inside. Her classroom was on the third floor, and for the briefest moment she imagined climbing up the fire escape rather than walking in through the front entrance. She laughed to herself when she remembered Summer and Delaney doing just that a few months before, to ensure she’d go to the principal interview after they submitted her application.
 

But she didn’t need to sneak around.
 

Why did she still feel the need to steel herself, even after seven years? In the fresh, purple light of the sunrise, Josie approached the wide wooden doors at the front of the century-old schoolhouse. She walked in, and he was standing in the doorway of his office. Scott Smith, as tall and handsome as ever. Scott Smith, the almost-perfect man with whom it would never, could never work.
 

“Josie,” he said.
 

“Scott.”
 

“You look nice.”
 

She probably did. Fashion was one of her strong points. Because she couldn’t remember the outfit she’d chosen the night before and she’d gotten dressed in a haze this morning, she looked down at herself: dark blue slacks that did make her legs look damned sexy, if she said so herself, and a white blouse with navy blue polka dots, tucked in neatly.
 

She nodded. “Thank you.”
 

“It’s been a long time since we were alone together,” he said. “Why don’t you join me for a cup of coffee?”
 

Over the course of the past seven years, Josie often caught Scott looking at her during meetings, standing a little too close at staff parties and laughing a little too loudly at her jokes. Even after she married Paul. Even after her flame for Scott died. Well, almost died. And most importantly, even after she discovered his secrets.
 

Since her flame for him was long dead, or almost dead, what could it hurt to have coffee with him? He was leaving after this year, anyway. She already knew she’d be taking over his position. Besides, her fellow teachers would start trickling in within thirty minutes, so she had a little cushion.
 

How much could happen in thirty minutes?
 

***

“Two creams and two sugars?” Scott asked, although he was already stirring them into the
Recipe For A Human: Just Add Coffee
mug. She nodded, trying not to be delighted that he remembered how she took her coffee. She thanked him and he sat down behind his desk.

“You know, I’ve been thinking,” he said.
 

“Yeah?”
 

“I’ve missed that slow smile, Josie. You don’t even realize how sensual it is, do you?”
 

“Mr. Smith, that’s hardly an appropriate way to speak to one of your employees.”
 

“That’s what I’ve been thinking about. You realize, don’t you, that as soon as this school year is over, you won’t be my employee any longer?”
 

Josie nodded. “I do realize that, yes.”
 

Scott stood up, and Josie took in all the features that had become so familiar to her during that intense (okay,
very
intense) summer years ago: the long muscles in his thighs, the soft dark hair on his forearms and the star-shaped mole on his left cheek.
 

A tiny flutter rose in her belly, and she hated herself for the reaction.
You’re married, Garcia.
 

He sat down in the chair next to hers and grinned at her. She couldn’t help it. She grinned back.
 

“You realize, don’t you,” she said, “that I’m married now? And not to you?”
 

“I do realize that, yes,” Scott said. “But I’m not saying we have to be an item. I’m just saying we can go out for drinks now and then.”
 

Josie considered. He was smooth. But was he right? Could they go out and have drinks, as friends?
 

“I’m not sure that’s appropriate. With our … history.”
 

Scott let his gaze travel down Josie’s face, her neck, her torso and back up. She shivered when she remembered what he could do to those body parts with his mouth.

“It’s probably not appropriate,” he said.
 

She laughed, but for some reason she felt uneasy. He reached over and took her hand. Her skin tingled. His thumb caressed her fingers. She bit her lip.

“Don’t tell me this is turning you on,” he said.
 

You still know me so well.
 

She withdrew her hand, remembering The Marriage Intervention and picturing Summer and Delaney’s reactions if she told them about this finger caressing.
 

“So? What do you think? Can we go for drinks as soon as I retire from Juniper Elementary?”
 

Bad idea. Of course you can’t go for drinks with him. You really should just steer clear.
 

She shrugged a shoulder, going for aloof, blasé. Inside, her blood thrummed along in her veins like a symphony.

Scott reached for her hand a second time. When he touched her, memories of all of Paul’s infractions against her, against their marriage, paraded through her mind.
 

Last year, he completely forgot her birthday. They’d planned to go to dinner at Evan’s Steakhouse and spent ten minutes laying in bed the night before, salivating over the fresh baked rolls, the juicy steaks, and the house steak sauce. But at three a.m., just a few hours later, Paul’s phone rang. Another load of drugs was making its way up Interstate Seventeen, and he had to sit on the highway and wait for it.
 

The bust turned into a huge search warrant, and Paul and his team spent her entire birthday at some seedy apartment complex. He never even checked in, and didn’t answer his phone when Josie called to see whether he’d be home in time for their reservation at Evan’s. Needless to say, she canceled it and sat at home alone that night eating birthday cake.

On one of their rare date nights just a few months ago, Paul’s work phone vibrated during the movie. She hissed at him to turn it off, and made an ugly angry face at him when she saw his sergeant’s name on the screen. He went outside to answer and returned a few seconds later whispering that he had to go. Like any normal married couple, they’d come to the theater together, which meant she had to leave the movie halfway through to drive him home so he could get his work car. She spent the drive complaining about missing the rest of the movie, but in truth, she was upset because they had to cut their time together short.
 

Just last month, one of Paul’s partners, Michael, confessed to the guys that he was having an affair. He said that ever since the birth of his first child, his wife, Jennifer, ignored him, gave him the cold shoulder. When Paul told Josie the story, she found herself enraged on Jennifer’s behalf, and even more enraged when Paul defended Michael, explaining that he was just really lonely. They hadn’t spoken for the entire week following that fight, but she couldn’t be sure whether it’s because they were fighting or because he was gone. Working.
 

Josie dragged herself back to the present moment and looked at Scott, whose worst fault was that he wanted something he couldn’t have.
 

“Well, I’m not saying no,” she said.
 

The words dangled in the air between them, stretching the moment taut.
 

They both jumped when they heard the building’s front door open. Purposeful clicks echoed off the polished wood floor, and Josie held her breath.
 

“Blair Upton,” Scott said as the steps approached his office. “What a pleasure so early in the morning.”
 

Ah, my arch rival.
 

Blair arched a penciled-on eyebrow at Josie, and in that glance, Josie saw so many things. She saw Blair questioning what she was doing here, in Scott’s office. She saw her remembering the one mistake Scott and Josie made: the time they shared a kiss just outside the auditorium and Blair came around the corner and caught them touching only at the lips but so tangled up. Josie saw Blair wishing Josie hadn’t landed the principal position and taking note of the distance (the very short distance) between Scott Smith’s hand and Josie’s on the desk at this very moment. Finally, she saw Blair calculating exactly what this moment meant, for the two of them.
 

It meant nothing for Scott. He was moving on, to a new position at the school district, one where the school-level politics wouldn’t touch him.
 

But it means everything for Blair and me
. If Blair could prove Scott and Josie had a relationship, she could bring Josie down.
The lights would be out on my own role as principal of Juniper Elementary before the curtain even went up.
 

“It’s nice to see you, as always,” Josie said to Blair.