—
"Angie!" Janet exclaimed, seeing her dear friends Angela and Idris enter the waiting area with luggage at their sides. She ran over to their presences, awarding them with hugs and cheek kisses. Boris then made his way to them as well, doing as such.
"I really missed y'all," Angela said back, smiling an enlarged smile. She then allowed her eyes to roam the room of which they stood, searching for their other peers. "Wait a minute, where everybody else at?"
Janet waved the woman off, "Girl, now you know them fools are never on time." Her eyes rolled to the rear of her head. "Sure Whitney and Bobby somewhere going at it. Toni and Shemar probably ain't even left the house, chile. And that damn Mariah? Now you know she 'den stopped at one of these stores around here."
The husbands' heads moved in an up and down fashion—just as Angela's—all as they agreed with what was stated. Janet had truly described her friends' lateness to a T, being that she knew them all like the back of her hand.
"Know what?" Boris said, his pupils jumping between everyone. "While we wait, we might as well walk around and check this place out, see everything that's here."
Idris looked at his friend—which was more like his brother—as if he were crazy. "With these women? Oh no, brotha'. You know they ain't about to walk nowhere." He laughed a bit. "Especially if they gotta carry these bags."
"Tuh, you right about that, Idris," Janet said back, eyeing her own husband sideways. She then grabbed ahold to Angela's arm and led her to a nearing sofa. "Why don't you two go check it out? Me and my girl gotta catch up anyways."
After the men had been out of the waiting room, both Janet and Angela took their respective places upon the sofa. They couldn't help but to smile and laugh uncontrollably. Even though the trip was meant for a couple's retreat, the women were overly excited to be back in each other's presences for once more.
"So, how are you and Boris doing?" Angela asked, eyeing her friend closely. "How are the restaurants? Whitney said you thinkin' bout working on a third."
Janet's pupils rolled in circular motions at the thought of her husband. "Girl to be honest—and you the only person I'm telling this to—I don't know if Boris and I are gonna leave here together." She then breathed rather profoundly.
"What?" Angela's eyes widened as an astonished expression rode the tip of her nose. "What's going on, Janet? I mean, I know it's been a few weeks since us girls have sat down and talked. But even on the phone, you ain't told me nothing like this."
The other woman's shoulders shrugged. "Just ain't been connecting. Even after all that therapy, nothing's changed." Her head moved from one side to the other, a display of her own disbelief. "And I don't know how to make it work no more. So, if I gotta walk away, then I'mma do that."
Angela placed the palm of her left hand upon Janet's right shoulder. "Girl, if there's anything I know about marriage it's that if there's anything worth holding onto, you don't let go." She spoke informatively. "Just because therapy didn't work don't mean this retreat won't. Y'all gon' be just fine."
"Ugh," Janet sighed, releasing more heavy breaths. "I just wish we were like you and Idris." She then pointed into the direction of her dear friend. "Y'all know the rest of us look up to y'all."
The other woman smiled, slightly. It was true, she and Idris were the couple that the others saw as the Mom & Dad of the group. They were the only couple that didn't seem to have many troubles, but if they did, they knew how to work through them. In fact, Angela and Idris were also the two that had been married the longest. Being that Angela mentored children and soon became the owner of a child's group home and Idris was a high school Mathematics teacher, the two bonded over the shared love they both held for kids. This shared love lasted for a count of twenty years. Together for four, married for sixteen.
