The Marriage Jar
By JustJake051
Part One
Chapter One
"I'm just not feeling it."
The words rang in his brain like a death knell. Rob Wakefield just couldn't shake those words from his mind. He knew there was something going on in their marriage, but he had absolutely no idea what it was. His wonderful wife of nineteen years had said "I'm just not feeling it," in her response, when he asked her if something was wrong two days ago. For many months now his wife, Joann, seemed angry, solemn, and very closed-off to him. Not at all like herself.
The idea of seeing a marriage counselor surfaced and they talked about it. Rob Wakefield was readily in favor. In fact, if they sorted back through their conversations, it was clear that Rob was the one who suggested it in the first place. Their marriage of almost twenty years was in real jeopardy and they both knew it. The distance between Rob and Joann had been growing over the last few years and now felt like a canyon. With no bridge in sight. They were now nothing more than roommates, with all the love and passion of their marriage seemingly wrung out. Rob and Joann had gotten married straight out of college, had a daughter, successful careers and now should be able to enjoy a fun, exiting life together, Rob thought. But it wasn't working out that way.
Joann Wakefield was still an attractive woman, and Rob knew it. At forty years old, Joann was still quite beautiful. She was five foot-nine inches tall, slim and very fit. Earlier, for almost ten years, Joann had worked as a fitness model for the local gym. But about a year ago, she had stopped. Her daily routine at the gym still kept her body in shape and active, but the fun was now clearly missing in her life. Her bright blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes were still there, but now she didn't seem to light up the way she used to. Her large breasts were perfect Rob thought, and appeared quite large, when contrasted to her slim figure and her tiny waist. And her figure certainly didn't go unnoticed when she was in the gym or out jogging in the streets. Men stopped to stare, heads turned, and Joann knew it. But the truth was, it wasn't how she looked that had Joann upset and often depressed these days. It was her own self-image that kept battering her down. She felt old. She didn't feel attractive and had now convinced herself that time had taken her sexuality and looks away. Perhaps it was just turning forty that had affected her more than she cared to admit. Her mid-life crisis, perhaps, she thought. Or maybe it was that their nineteen-year-old daughter had recently eloped with her 38-year-old college professor, and that had set Joann off. She now felt very old. She couldn't be more specific than that.
And in some respects, her husband Rob was the same way. An attractive man, Rob Wakefield had somewhere along the way, quit being attentive. Maybe it started because of career, the job. All his energy went into work and his career. And now that he was financially stable and successful, he seemed to have all the fire and energy for his wife missing and gone. She was there and they were together. That's about all he could say about their marriage at this point. And he, like Joann, had had enough. They were both tired of the distance between them. They just didn't know what the problem was or how to get their life together jump-started again, that's all.
And Rob Wakefield felt an awkward guilt. They should be having a vibrant and passionate life with each other. It must be his fault, he thought. But somehow, over the years, they had let their love and their passion for each other slip away. So, in their last-ditch effort to save the marriage, they both agreed to see a marriage counselor together.
"Well, we have to do something. We have an imperfect marriage. I think we're both disappointed that's it's not perfect. We thought it was. It's not. It's time and we have to talk to someone," Joann Wakefield said to her husband.
Chapter Two
A week later, Rob and Joann were in the car driving to the marriage counselor's office and having second thoughts. "No, keep going," Joann said softly. "Let's just hear what she has to say. We both agreed, we need to do something."
The counselor they selected came very highly recommended and people they both knew swore how great Dr. Camilla Hairston was to help save a marriage, or to make it crystal clear that it was irreconcilable and the next move was a divorce. And that's exactly what Rob Wakefield was looking for... a decisive direction. "I'm just not feeling it," Joann had said several weeks ago. And that cryptic remark felt like a kick to the stomach and stuck it in Rob's mind. Something had to change. He wanted help, a direction to act, to put his marriage back on the enjoyment track and find the love that he and Joann had shared years ago. He wanted something to reignite the spark of their marriage that had been put out by time, jobs, a child, or whatever the real reason was.
As they walked into the waiting area, Joann whispered, "Okay. Let's just hear her out and then we'll decide if we want to come back again."
A very attractive woman came out to meet them and introduced herself. She was Dr. Camilla Hairston and she showed the couple into her office. They chatted briefly and then Dr. Hairston said, "So, let's start with the marriage. Let's talk about what's not working and why you came to see me. You asked for a two-hour session today, so take your time and please speak freely. About everything. And please, don't lie. You're wasting my time and your money."
Right away, Rob noticed that Dr. Hairston was British and had retained a slight bit of her British accent. Rob was also rather shocked at the beauty of the doctor. Her jet-black hair was cut short and quite stylish and her green eyes glistened. And he also noticed that she had a very subtle, strong sexuality about her. As Joann talked, Rob continued taking stock of the doctor. Nice breasts, he thought. She wore a short, tight skirt with her suit, and she had shapely, long slender legs. Really very attractive, he thought to himself, fighting to stay focused on the reason they were there.
"So, married nineteen years and you are both feeling that the romance is gone. Correct?" Dr. Hairston asked after Joann and Rob had spoken. "So, you both agree on that? Good. Now, how often do you have sex?"
There was silence and a long pause.
"It's been a while," Rob muttered. "We just don't seem to have the interest in it."
"Can you be more specific? You don't have the time?"
"No, that's not it," Rob replied. "There doesn't seem to be a fire, a heat, a passion there like it used to be. And there should be. That's what I think anyway."
"Okay, there should be passion. Good, thank you for your honesty. Joann?" Dr. Hairston said.
"The same, I guess," Joann replied. The doctor paused and looked at Joann.
"Listen, if you don't object, let's step back a moment. Tell me, on a scale of zero to ten, how hard are you willing to work to save this marriage?" Dr. Hairston asked.
"Ten," Rob answered quickly.
Joann hesitated. "Seven," she said softly.
"Okay," Dr. Hairston said, jotting down on her notepad.
"On a scale of zero to ten, how important is sex to you personally? To you, not to the marriage." she asked.
"Six," Rob said.
"Seven," Joann responded weakly.
Dr. Hairston stopped writing and paused again. Then she looked up from her notepad and focused on Joann. There was a long pause as she waited to write anything on the notepad.
"Sorry. Ten," Joann said reluctantly.
"Thank you," Dr. Hairston said and went back to writing on the notepad.
Rob was stunned. He was shaken by both Joann's answer about working to save the marriage and the importance of sex to her.
"You are both very attractive people. Affairs? Are you having sex with others? Please be honest," Dr. Hairston asked.
"Oh, God no," Joann said. "It's been kind of take it or leave it for us and we've pretty much just left it, I guess."
"No, no affairs," Rob responded to the question, still reeling from Joann's earlier responses.
Dr. Camilla Hairston looked at Rob and Joann and let out a long sigh.
"I hope you'll listen carefully to what I'm about to say. When you marry someone, you don't marry one person. As the marriage ages, people change. And you find that you are married to a different person than you originally fell in love with and married. Marriage works by understanding the changes and loving the new person your spouse is. It requires a lot of work and a desire to make it work, and above all, communication," Dr. Hairston said.
Dr. Hairston glanced down at her notepad and then looked up again. "I like to call my partner in for a few minutes, if you agree. He's also my husband and we share the practice but use different last names for accounting and billing, really. I feel that sex may be quite a large issue here. The difference in the importance levels may likely be a core issue of why you're here. So, let's focus on that right now. My husband is an MD., PhD., certified psychologist, psychiatrist, and we are both board-certified sex therapists. It doesn't sound like there are any physical issues or reasons here, are there? You're both quite capable, I assume."
"Yes, absolutely," Rob said, as Joann nodded in agreement.
Punching a button on the desk phone, Dr. Hairston leaned forward and spoke into the speakerphone. "Are you free for a few minutes. I'd like to get a consult on some new clients we have, and I think together we may be able to help them."
The adjacent door in the office opened and a man walked in. He was a tall, older man with sandy grey hair man, wearing an expensive, tailored grey suit. He was very charming as he greeted both Joann and Rob.
"Hello, I'm Doctor Thurston Powell. And please, call me Thurston," he said with a much stronger British accent than his wife's.
They chatted for a few minutes, reviewing many of the questions and answers that Dr. Hairston had asked earlier.
He glanced over his wife's notes for a few minutes and then said "I don't like to make hasty decisions with patients, but I also don't like for them to spend money, month after month, on counseling that isn't helping. Our methods may seem unconventional to some, but our clients are always very satisfied with the outcome. Let's think about weekly sessions for the next few weeks, shall we? And then, if you find you're both still in the same place as today, Camilla and I will review and make some recommendations to stop. Agreed?"
Both Rob and Joann agreed and nodded.
"Rob, you said it's been about two years that there has been a tension, a strain between the two of you? And how long ago did your daughter move out to go to college?"
"About two years ago," Rob replied.
"I see," Dr. Powell said, adding notes to his wife's pad.
"First, have you both ever talked to each other about your fantasies or your fetishes?" he asked.
"Ummm, no," Joann said. "Not really."
"No," Rob said, now more uncomfortable than he had been in the session.
"Rob, why don't you tell Joann what secretly excites you, that you've never told her in your twenty years together?" Dr. Powell said. "Remember this is a safe space where we talk freely. No hiding, leave nothing unsaid."
Rob had never felt so uncomfortable in front of his wife. "I guess you might call this a fetish, or maybe a fantasy... um, slutty, you might say. Women in very sexy lingerie. I get turned on by women in hose, high heels, sexy, maybe trashy underwear, latex. You know, slutty. That kind of thing. I really like that. Always have."
"And you never mentioned it to Joann?" Thurston said.
"I guess I never said anything. I was afraid you'd think it was a little too weird or kinky," he said, turning to his wife.
"Now that's progress, right there," Thurston said. "Anything else that excites you that you haven't told your wife?"
"You're going to thinks this is crazy. Umm... spanking, bare bottom spanking," Rob stated, dipping his head in embarrassment.
"Are you giving or receiving the spanking in your fantasies?" Camilla asked.
