“I’m not going to leave you, Rhett.” I reached out and grabbed his face. “Why would I leave you?”
“That’s what happens in life.” He shrugged. “People leave when things get rough.” His eyes looked into mine and I could see the pain reflected in his expression. It was a pain I’d seen shining through from his soul for many, many years.
“I’m not going to leave you, Rhett. I’m not your mom.” I said softly and my heart broke for the man sitting in front of me.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen.” He shrugged. “I just don’t want to give you a reason to leave or stop loving me.” He muttered and as I looked into his face I was taken back to his thirteenth birthday party. And the empty look of sadness that had been on his face when he’d realized that his mother wasn’t going to be there to celebrate him becoming a teenager. We’d never spoken about it, but I’d seen his hurt. Rhett had carried the pain of his mother leaving all of his life and he’d never been able to speak about it. Not really. Yes, we’d talked about it on a superficial level, but he’d never opened up about her completely and I’d never pushed it.
“There’s nothing you could do that would stop me from loving you, Rhett Madison.” I squeezed his hand. “When is this class?”
“We can go tonight.” He smiled sweetly. “They have it every day. It’s a group setting.”
“A group setting?” I knew my face reflected my horror. “What?”
“Haha, I know.” He laughed. “That’s what I thought as well, but supposedly it’s meant to help to be around other couples with other issues and we all get to weigh in and discuss the issues.”
“I see.” I made a face. I wasn’t sure how I felt about discussing our issues with other couples there. It seemed so impersonal.
“We’ll see how it goes.” His eyes searched mine. “We’ll see if it helps.”
“I’m willing to try.” I nodded. “I’m surprised you even found the class, you surprise me.”
“I’m a man of surprises.”
“In your pants?” I joked and he laughed.
“Isn’t that supposed to be my line?”
***
“Welcome, welcome everyone.” A tall lady with short, curly black hair grinned at everyone in the room. “I’m Tasha and I’m the group lead today. Thanks to everyone for coming.”
“Thanks for having us.” Rhett answered and she beamed at him. I tried not to roll my eyes as I noticed some of the other girls in the class checking him out. No wonder their relationships were in trouble, if they were busy checking my man out.
“So is everyone ready to get started?” Tasha smiled.
“Yes,” We all chorused and she sat down.
“Great.” She looked at each of us and then continued. “Today is going to be hard for some of you. We aren’t like most group meetings. We don’t introduce ourselves and talk about our love of basketball or golf. We jump right into the issues. We try and get to the crux of the problems in your relationships. This setting is meant to help you identify your issues by listening to each other speak.”
“People are going to tell me what me and Juan’s problem is?” A girl to the right of Rhett spoke up. “How they going to know?”
“No, no, Valentina.” Tasha smiled and looked at all of us. “But that was a great question. Let me explain how it’s going to work. We will go in turns and talk about our relationships. We will identify as a group, what issues we think each couple is facing and each couple will then spend some time and talk about whether or not they think they have that issue. Does that make sense everyone?”
“Yes,” I nodded as Valentina made a face at me. I could see Rhett looking at me and I reached over and grabbed his hand. This was not exactly what I’d had in mind when I thought of a relationship course, but I was trying not to judge the class before it was over.
“Okay, let’s start.” Tasha nodded to me and Rhett. “Why don’t you two start?”
“Yes, Brad and Angelina, I wanna know what problems you two have?” Valentina cracked a joke and the group laughed. Tasha held up her hand and looked around the group. “Remember this is a no judgment zone, I don’t want any couples making fun of other couples issues, okay? You’re all here because you’re having problems in your relationship. Please don’t say anything you wouldn’t want to hear. Does everyone understand?”
“Si.” Valentina said and rolled her eyes. I looked over at Rhett and he grinned at me. I could tell from his expression that he felt as out-of-place in this setting as I did. In fact, he looked so out of place that I wanted to laugh. Never in a million years, would I have pictured my Rhett in a group relationship class.
“Are you ready Rhett and Clementine?”
“Yes.” I spoke up and Rhett squeezed my hand. “What exactly are we meant to say?”
“Just tell us about your relationship and we’ll go from there.”
“Okay,” I nodded and took a deep breath. “Rhett and I have been best friends since we were little kids. I was the studious kid, always studying and never dating and he was the playboy, dating around and barely studying.” I gave him a quick look. “And when I say he dated, he really dated. He would call me every night and tell me about his dates.”