Page 13 of Mostly My Girlfriend
3
Therapy
Ethan
Carol looked to the two of us without her normal humming sound.
“So you both pretended it didn’t mean anything. Can you both acknowledge now that it did?”
I nodded and when I looked over to Julia, sitting so still in the chair next to me, I could see she was nodding, too.
“Let me ask you, Julia,” Carol started. “After the wedding, when did you realize Ethan had been with another woman and how did that make you feel?”
Oh, I thought, silently chuckling.This is going to be hysterical.
“It would have been…” Jules looked at me and I simply raised my eyebrows. “There would have been someone at the office holiday party…I just can’t think. It was supermodels all the time, for years before that.”
“Yes, but specifically after Daniel’s wedding is what Carol asking about,” I prompted her. “After we were together that time.”
She nodded and I could see her reaching for these past few years. Trying to put it together, when I’d been with someone else. Who that person had been.
“I can’t remember, but I’m sure whoever it was, she was devastatingly beautiful. That’s his type.”
Carol looked at me, silently asking me to answer.
“The reason she can’t remember anyone these last few years is because there has been no one.”
“That’s not possible,” Jules insisted, and the anger surged inside me again.
“Exactly at what point did you start believing I was a liar? Because between the two of us, I think I’m the only one who has actually been honest around here.”
“You haven’t been with another woman since the night you were together at your friend’s wedding?” Carol asked me.
“No. Not since then. I didn’t see the point.”
“You were always hooking up. Meaningless hookups. That was your thing.” Jules said still clearly in shock over what I’d told her.
“I don’t suppose I get any credit for growing up? For not finding the satisfaction in those hookups? Or maybe I just didn’t want to hurt your damn feelings! Not that you were paying attention because you were busy getting engaged!”
“It was…difficult for me,” she said to Carol. “After the wedding. Knowing it was a one-time thing for us. I had to force myself to look outside of our relationship…”
“Ah! See, we do have a relationship! I win.”
“This isn’t a competition, Ethan,” Carol said.
“I know that, but I told this woman yesterday that I loved her, and instead of believing me, she fucking ran away—”
“We’re here in the first place becauseyouran away!” Jules shouted at me.
“And I came back!” I yelled.
“And I’m here today!”
Silence descended and Carol smiled. “Okay. We’ve obviously hit upon a sensitive subject. Julia, do you believe that Ethan’s been faithful to you this whole time? Because I think that’s what he was doing. Wasn’t it, Ethan?”
I shook my head. “To be honest, I wasn’t thinking of it like that…I just…I didn’t want to fuck another stranger. I had no appetite for it, so I didn’t do it.”
“And you, Julia, you said that it was difficult for you after the wedding. How did you feel that next day?”
