Luke parks his vehicle on the side of the road at a mall and waits for the rider he is assigned to pick up. On weekends, he works as a driver for a popular rideshare company for extra income. He waits for his rider to get into his vehicle. Luke isn't having a good day and his patience is on thin ice. He wants to get a few more rides in before going home for the night. A couple of minutes go by and he's ready to cancel the ride. Just before he can cancel, the rear passenger door opens. A friendly middle aged woman slides into the car with a handful of shopping bags and closes the door.
"Sorry for taking so long! Are you Luke?"
He replies with a nod to her in the rearview mirror and starts the trip on his phone to take the woman to her specified destination, an outlet with premium stores. Her name on the rideshare identifies her as Ingrid.
"Sorry to be a bother Luke! Do you mind turning down the music?" Ingrid asks. Without a verbal response, Luke lowers the volume of the playlist he has set on his phone via Bluetooth with the touch of a button on his steering wheel. He keeps his focus on the road ahead of him with a beautiful sunset in sight.
"How's your day going Luke?" Ingrid asks with enthusiasm.
"It's going. I've had better. You?" Luke asks her without returning the same level of enthusiasm his rider has.
"Not bad at all! Went on a shopping spree today. Going to a few more stores before I call it a night!" Ingrid tells him looking into his reflection in the rearview mirror in front. Luke doesn't reply back to her. He isn't in the mood to talk and keeps his focus on the road. He senses Ingrid staring at him from behind. He can tell she wants to converse. He quietly lets out a sigh of frustration. The estimated time of arrival to the next location is 25 minutes.
"That's nice ma'am. Listen, I don't mean to be disrespectful or anything. I'm just not in the mood to talk. It's actually why I had my music playing. I can leave the volume down just like you want but I kindly ask if we can ride in silence to your destination. I'll get you there safe and sound," Luke tells her. There's a few moments of silence that pass by on the road before she speaks up.
"I understand. I'm sorry to be a bother. I really hope your day gets better!" Ingrid tells him with a calm smile.
Luke swallows the lump in this throat he feels building up. He genuinely feels bad for shutting down the kind stranger in his car seated behind him. Every few minutes that passed by as he drove, he'd look into the rearview mirror to take a glance at the woman in the back. Ingrid is a mature woman in her mid to late fifties. She has shagged brunette hair, baby blue eyes, and long lash extensions. Her only choice of makeup is a merlot shade of lipstick. Ingrid has natural wrinkles on her face from her age and a freckled body. Ingrid looks out the window on her side enjoying the views of the sunset in the valley of lush green hills in their presence. Each time Luke looks into his rearview mirror, he finds Ingrid looking in his direction. Bold enough to look into her baby blue eyes, she flashes a pearly white smile. He returns a smile with a weak grin and focuses on the road. The silent ride goes by and Luke pulls into the parking lot of the premium outlets for Ingrid to disembark his car. She thanks him for the ride before opening the rear passenger door. She pauses for a moment and reaches into her purse pulling out a business card.
"Thanks for the safe ride Luke! I'm sorry for being a bother! If you ever need to talk or vent about anything, I'm a licensed therapist. Come by my office for a free consultation and we'll take it from there if my services are beneficial to you. Take care!" Ingrid tells him handing over the card. Before he can thank her, she gets out of his vehicle and walks away. Luke looks at the information on the card:
Dr. Ingrid Wolf
Therapy • Counseling
The back of the card has her office suite address and phone number. Luke thinks about his encounter with Ingrid in his car. She was kind to him from the moment she stepped foot into his vehicle. She was kind to him even when he wasn't too friendly. Luke figured he has nothing to lose in trying therapy considering Ingrid offered a free consultation. He decided to go ahead and call the number on the business card to schedule an appointment with her.
____ ____
A week goes by after Luke's interaction in his car with Ingrid. He took advantage of the consultation she offered him and scheduled an office visit. Luke shows up to the office suite and waits for the receptionist to escort him to Ingrid's office. Luke walks into the office and is greeted by the familiar face. Ingrid extends her hand greeting him telling him to take a seat. Luke takes a seat in front of her desk as she walks around and sits on her side. Ingrid looks professional in her work environment. She has her brunette hair tied behind her head with a hair claw. She wears light makeup with her merlot lipstick and long eye lash extensions that take away the need for mascara. She has a pair of pearl earrings and a matching necklace. Ingrid wears a pair of reading glasses with big square lenses that add a studious vibe to her appearance. Ingrid wears a plaid black and white bodycon skirt that highlights the natural curves of her body. She wears a white collared top tucked into her skirt. The short length of her skirt show off her thick thighs enclosed in beige nylon tights. Ingrid types away on her laptop for a moment before taking out a pen and notepad. Luke's therapy consultation is officially in session.
_________BEGIN CONSULTATION___________
Ingrid: "So what brings you in today Luke?"
Luke: "My wife."
Ingrid: "Ah! Marriage. That's always a tough one. Can you summarize to me what the issues with your wife are?"
Luke: "I don't know where to begin but I'll try...
First of all before I shit on her, my wife is an incredible woman! She's drop dead gorgeous, supports me in any way she can, and she's family-oriented. She's the biggest go getter I've ever met having her own cosmetic business and always busting her ass working. She has a great personality and is very social being able to hold a conversation with anyone and everyone. But sometimes her personality can just be a little too...big for me.
People always say opposites attract. And that couldn't be more true than with me and my wife. We are different in every way. I'm a soft-spoken guy and it's hard for me to communicate how I feel. My wife can stand up for herself any time and be able to specify her wants and needs without any trouble. I'm just an average looking guy, nothing special. My self esteem isn't fragile but it's not easy at times to hear how lucky I am to have my wife by my side as she's the complete package. I can't tell you how many times I've had people do a double take when I show them a picture of the both of us. It's like a shock for them to hear that the Goddess standing next to me in the photos is my wife.
My wife tends to have everything go her way. And I'm always the bad guy. She has to be right all the time. There's no sense in arguing with her when we're not getting along as she always has the better outcome. Her being able to express herself and how she feels, it's easy for her to win an argument. Every. Time. It's like I don't get a say. And I'm not heard."
Ingrid: "So to my understanding Luke...
You don't feel like you're being heard. Your wife always wins the arguments and you are the opposite of her. Because you're this quiet guy with poor communication skills, you don't feel like it's easy for you to express how you feel. And your opposite personalities can be overbearing at times for you no?"
Luke: "Guess you can say that..."
Ingrid: "The other day when we met when I got into your car. You didn't want to talk to me and you seemed upset. Was it your wife?"
Luke: "Yes. A classic example as to how I can never win. That day, I had to have a painful conversation with my mother about boundaries between her, my wife, and I. I insisted that the conversation needed to be in person since it was a difficult conversation to have. But my wife didn't have time to make the two hour drive up north to be there with me and talk to my mom.
My mom is a complicated woman and tends to overstep into relationships in many ways. It's been an ongoing issue in my family with my older brothers with their spouses. My mom wants certain holidays spent all together throughout the year and with the traditions her side of the family have. She's heavily opinionated and has a lot to say about others in the family including spouses of other relatives and gossiping. But that's a whole other mess I don't want to go get into."
Ingrid: "Issues with the in-laws are more common than you think. However, your wife does have a point. Boundaries need to be set between you and her and both of your parents. No one should get in the way or have a say on your marriage. That's between you and your wife. Continue on."
Luke: "Yes. I understand what my wife was telling me. The whole boundaries part is true. Especially with how my mom can be. But the thing is, I had asked her to take time out of her busy schedule to come with me and have a face to face conversation with my mother. And she couldn't do so the weekend I was available to drive up and see the family because of a work commitment. But yet she told me to just have the conversation over the phone instead. The day I met you and picked you up last week while I was working, my wife and I had a big argument about the matter. That day I just gave up and did what my wife wanted. I called my mom and talked to her about it over the phone instead of in person. Now my mom is mad at me and refuses to accept my calls or texts. And my wife told me that she'll get over it and reach out to me when she's ready. I've always had a great relationship with my mother. So this being the first fall out...it sucks. It hurts. And my wife doesn't see the damage that she's caused. Mostly because she's too busy to even notice. Business is great for her and she's making great money."
Ingrid: "So tell me. How does it make you feel when you're feeling ignored by your wife? It's a messy web of issues but the center of it seems to be how she doesn't understand how you feel. She's too preoccupied to notice."
Luke: "It makes me sad. Angry. I feel ignored, almost neglected."
Ingrid: "These are strong feelings you have Luke. And you have every right to feel this way. You've expressed to me how difficult it is to explain how you feel. Express yourself I should say. Feeling ignored and neglected, that's a great vocabulary you have. Have you tried to explain these feelings to your wife?"
Luke: "I try. But it's like I freeze. I can practice what I want to say to her in my head and know how I'm feeling. But when my wife speaks to me in an argument, she makes valid points and expresses how she feels in a better way than I could ever and it just shuts me down. I go with the flow. I just go with the whole 'Happy Wife, Happy Life' concept. She's right and I'm wrong. And that's that."
Ingrid: "Are their other issues with your wife I should know about? We opened up this can of worms so we might as well continue to dig deeper into this."
Luke: "My wife is a few years older than me. Obviously nothing wrong with that as I've always been into mature women. But it has its ups and downs being with a woman like my wife who knows what she wants and has her priorities straight.
I had a somewhat conservative upbringing. I didn't get to go to the high school parties and social events. And I didn't go to college. So I've had this feeling like I've missed out on a lot in my late teens and early twenties. I'm in my late twenties now and some days I still feel that way. My wife was popular in high school. She was young and pretty, a member of the dance team, and played volleyball. She got to attend the parties and live that lifestyle I missed out on. She did the traditional four year university route and was part of a sorority. So she's been around the block and has stories for days about her wild past. But now I'm feeling like the lame quiet guy she settled for. A Union-protected electrician with a decent salary with a part time as a ride-share driver.
As an adult, I'm able to make my own decisions and I've been able to step away from the religious upbringing I grew up with. I drink and go out to bars on weekends with some buddies and all that shit. But when I ask my wife to relive some of her wild days from the past with me, she doesn't want to do it. She's past that phase of her life and she happily moved on, focused on her marriage and career. She's ready to start a family too. A good time to her is a dinner date, romantic sex, and binge watching a show on tv."
