Road Trip

Chapter 2

"Jackie was great, we used to go golfing all the time, and had planned a road trip to Myrtle Beach for a golf vacation. Never made it. We stopped for gas, and then to eat at a nice little restaurant outside of Jacksonville, and I was polite, pulled her chair out when the waitress took us to our table. She sat, we ate, but she was quiet the entire meal. I had no idea what was going on, the food was good, not much of a view but it was just off a highway exit so not too much we could do about that. Anyway, we finish eating and get back into the car, and she starts screaming. I had pulled out the wrong chair you see, she had wanted my seat. I had just pulled out the closest chair, so she didn't have to walk around the table, but she had this thing where she had to see the whole restaurant when she ate, so she needed my seat. But, not once did she say that when we were sitting or eating. I would have switched! Either one was fine with me! Anyway, she made me turn around and drive her home, never made it to golf."

Doctor Merritt sighed and stopped writing. "Was this before or after the incident with," she glanced at her notes, "Lisa?"

"Before. This one was about five years ago."

"Before you went on these road trips, had you noticed any changes in the behavior of the women you were seeing? It seems odd that one incident could collapse a relationship."

I thought about it. I know I wasn't perfect by any stretch. Sure, I tried to be a good boyfriend, but I'm sure there were faults that I didn't even know about. My work schedule probably didn't help either, since sometimes dates had to be at strange times. But still, nobody had ever complained about anything big, had they? "I can't think of anything that might have happened before hand. I suppose it could have been a lot of little things I was unaware of, but in none of the instances was there a fight before the trip."

"None of the instances? We have more to discuss?" She raised an eyebrow from behind her glasses. For some reason it made me think it was like a submarine putting up a periscope. I stifled the chuckle though.

"There may have been a few more," I admitted glumly. Those were joys as well.

"How many more?"

"Only two!" I replied defensively. Of course, that was 4 total, pretty much every girl I'd dated in the last 10 years.

Dr Merritt sighed and closed her notebook. "All right, we'll try to cover those both next week, and then see if we can come up with any commonalities, or ways that we might get you to a better place emotionally."

"Hey, that's why I'm here!" I admitted, feigning cheerfulness. In actuality, I wouldn't even have been here if not for my sister refusing to talk to me unless I went. I didn't think relationships were for me anymore, so why discuss all of the failures?

I left the office, situated in a small strip mall, and hopped into my car. I could drive most any car on the lot, or like many people in my position have a fleet of cars in the garage, but I only had a single BMW X3M, mostly for the 4-wheel drive that helped in the winter. I could have gone for an SUV for the hills, but they seemed way too big since it was just me, and I didn't like driving the bigger cars. I liked them a little nimbler. The car automatically synched to my phone, but I didn't bother starting any music. Instead, I just sat in the lot, looking at my watch.

Incoming call, Georgia Mobile, was almost immediately on the display, and I pressed the button to take it on the car audio. "Virgin Mobile, can I help you?" I said with my fake business voice.

"Ethan, sooner or later you're going to run out of stupid ways to answer the phone when I call," my sister said, and I could picture her rolling her eyes on the other end of the line.