Author's Note:
This is the final installment of this series. This has been a true story with the names & some details changed to protect the innocent. I would now encourage any comments, observations & criticism. Thank You!
*****
As Johnny backed off of the foundational fence encircling Karen's house, he stumbled backwards to his automobile and switched the ignition on without any conscious recognition of what he was doing. Robotically guiding and steering his car back to the expressway that had brought him to Karen's house unexpectedly and unannounced, he now drove the 50 miles back to his apartment in a complete state of shock and paralysis.
Johnny was mentally paralyzed just as if he had been stung by a deadly giant Sting Ray straight in his heart. His mind and his body were completely separated from each other as he consciously tried to make sense of what his eyes had just broadcast to his brain!
Returning to his teaching responsibilities were a real challenge under his mental stress, but Johnny pushed himself to maintain his routine and to try to continue his life as normally as possible. Not hearing anything from Karen in the intervening days, Johnny tried to whitewash the nightmarish images of her and George out of his mind.
Finally on the following Saturday while Johnny was doing some research in his office he received a surprise telephone call from Karen. Apologetic and emotional, she begged Johnny not to be angry with her and said that she wanted to let him know that she was having problems sleeping at night realizing what she had done and being terrified that she might lose him forever.
She said that she was not prepared to lose Johnny from her life and that she wanted to get with him again to try to put their broken relationship back together. She told Johnny that she was at that moment eating lunch with her neighbor Cousin and that she wanted to meet with him right then immediately.
Hearing this Johnny arranged for the star-crossed couple to meet at the Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Middletown, Ohio to have their cleansing conversation. As the dejected couple came together at the Southern soul-food eatery Karen remorsefully and uncharacteristically reached out and kissed and hugged Johnny as they met inside the venue's lobby to his amazement and astonishment!
Being seated in an isolated and less visible area in the establishment Johnny initially was completely silent and only stared at Karen once the pair were properly situated. Karen started the conversation by saying how sorry she was for how their relationship had deteriorated.
She intimated that she never meant or intended to fall in love with two men at the same time. She stated that she never wanted or sought to hurt Johnny. That she had only fallen in love with George because he came into her life at a moment when she and Johnny were split over the question of whether they would be getting married or not.
She admitted to him that the whole thing had been her fault due to her insecurity about whether or not she felt enthusiastic enough about Johnny to marry him. She said that it was her mentality that a bride should be 'giddy' over the image, aura and stature of the man that she was scheduled to marry in the weeks and days leading up to the wedding and that unfortunately she did not feel that excitement for Johnny.
She went on to explain that she loved Johnny and George for two different reasons. Johnny because of his intelligence, his reassuring love, and his potent sexuality. But she admitted that she had also fallen in love with George because he wanted her at a time when her self-confidence was crushed by Johnny's distraction with MATCHBOOK.com, because he made her feel 'desired' again, and because he was patient enough with her to let her pick & chose the course and pace of their love affair.
What Karen was proposing to Johnny was that she wanted him continually in her life as her Friend. She reminded him that from the very beginning of their relationship when it first looked like Karen would lose Johnny over her unwillingness to present herself as submissive to his Will, she had always wanted to secure their permanent friendship.
Now, she was pleading with him to develop some way that the two of them could get back together and sustain their relationship. She had called Johnny from her Cousin's just for that purpose of salvaging their affair.
Being quiet to Karen's presentation was totally uncharacteristic for Johnny. But sitting and listening was what he did that afternoon in Middletown, Ohio.
Having heard her presentation Johnny then proceeded to make a suggestion that he felt would be essential to their relationship's survival. He recommended that he and Karen commit to sitting with a professional psychologist for relationship counseling. He even went as far as consenting to having the counseling paid for out of the E.A.P. {Employee Assistance Program} from his teaching benefits at the Ohio State University.
The primary reason why Johnny was willing to hear Karen out during her "Fit of Contrition" was because he really truly loved her despite her shortcomings. They were both 'flawed' humans. But Johnny loved the fact that Karen was the most engaging, penetrating, conscientious, straight-forward-shooter, and compassionate woman he had ever encountered.
He proposed Relationship Counseling because he wanted to still attempt to salvage his marriage prospects with Karen, to attempt to forge a closer connection, to develop a deeper degree of intimacy, to attempt to improve their communication and to attempt to understand her mind-set better.