"So," said one of the counselors, a man in his late 40's. "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your marriage?"
Bree watched him carefully. She needed clarification before giving anything away.
"On what kind of scale?" she asked.
"Any kind." said the counselor. "Your choice."
"Ten." Bree responded quickly, flashing a bright smile. "Everything's perfect."
"I see..." said the counselor. He turned to Orson, not surprised to find Orson staring right back at him, shaking his head no. "What about you, Orson? Are you at a ten right now?"
"Six years ago, this marriage was a ten. Now? There's a one and a zero, but we're hovering somewhere in between them."
"I see..." the counselor said again. He put down his notepad, and thought for a moment. "Bree, you say everything is perfect. If that's true, then why are you here?"
"I was promised a luxury spa vacation, doctor. If this is what it takes to get there, I'll sit and answer your questions, but seeing as how the only problem I have with this marriage is that I'm still in it, you might not like the answers I give you."
* * *
"So." said Mike and Katherine's counselor, a woman in her early 50's. "Mike, is this your first marriage?"
"It's my second." he replied. Katherine noted the sheepishness in his voice, as if it were embarrassing that his count was up to two.
"Katherine? Is this your first?"
Katherine smiled and chuckled through her teeth. "It's...my third." she said, chuckling again.
The woman nodded, and asked politely, "Would you mind telling me why your previous marriages didn't work out?"
"Well, I ran away from my first because he beat me," Katherine told her matter-of-factly. "And my second cheated on me. I wanted to work things out after that but he found out that I'd been keeping a dirty little secret of my own, so he left me for good. The trust just wasn't there anymore."
"Thank you for sharing, Katherine. That's an important part of the process, and speaking of trust, thank you for trusting me with that information." The counselor turned to Mike, and asked him why his first marriage ended. He didn't answer for a long time.
"...I don't know." he finally said. The words cut into Katherine deeply. Lately it seemed like anything he said had the power to cut her. If he didn't know how his marriage to Susan had ended, it had never truly ended at all.
* * *
Gabrielle and Carlos woke up tired, but by the time they'd arrived to their session they were happy as clams. It was hard not to be; it didn't hurt to wake up in their beautiful room and hear the ocean outside their open window.
"Hi, I'm Gabrielle, this is my husband Carlos." Gabrielle said as they took their seats.
"Lovely to meet you." said their counselor, a woman in her early 40's. "You seem very upbeat." she added.
"Should we be? Have you been outside today?" Gabrielle asked her rhetorically.
"Fair enough. It just that most couples that come here have some trepidation about being in counseling."
"We're just here to support our friends." said Carlos. "We don't really need counseling. It's just part of the program so...here we are!"
Gabrielle and Carlos chuckled, wondering why their counselor wasn't chiming in.
"Well," she said with a smile. "It won't do any harm to do a little talking then, will it?"
* * *
"Why don't you tell me a little about your home life." said Lynette and Tom's counselor, a man in his late 50's. Lynette and Tom took turns describing a typical day in the Scavo household, talking about their children and their jobs and the recent sale of their restaurant. The counselor nodded and made little sounds of acknowledgement as they spoke, and Lynette noticed that he was writing a lot on his little pad of paper.
Tom was in the middle of explaining why the restaurant went under when Lynette interrupted him.
"Excuse me, what are you writing?" she asked the counselor.
"Notes." he murmured, without looking up. After he finished his last notation, he looked up at Lynette and smiled reassuringly. "Please, continue. I'm listening."
"Okay." Lynette said mildly. She turned to Tom, giving him a tight lipped smile. "Sorry."
Tom patted her knee, and asked where he'd left off.
*
Twenty minutes later, their first counseling session was almost over.
"That's our time for today." their counselor told them. He closed his notebook, and waited for them to leave. Tom made to stand up, but Lynette put her hand on his arm so he'd stay.
"How'd we do?" she asked the counselor.
"...Excuse me?"
"How'd we do? I mean, do you think we'll be okay?"
"It's only the first session." their counselor reminded them.
"I know, but if you had to say, one way or the other..."
"Lynette..." Tom said in a warning tone.
"Just give us a number, from one to ten."
"You want...a rating?" the counselor asked.
"Please."
"I don't think I can..."
"Just tell us, in your professional opinion: are we going to make it?"
"Lynette!" Tom said her name again, but she continued to stare down the man that was supposed to be helping them.
"I think you should go back to your room and prepare for whatever activity has been planned for you." the counselor suggested.
"I think you should do your job," said Lynette. "And assess this relationship as it stands today. One to ten, just throw out a number."
"Lynette, we're leaving." said Tom. "Let's go."
"Eight? Six? Two??" Lynette kept guessing as Tom pulled her away. The counselor just shook his head slowly, maintaining his calm exterior as Lynette begged him to report.
* * *
"Gabrielle, I don't know why you're so upset. She told us to be honest, so I told the truth."
They'd just left their counselor's office, and they were walking back to their room to change for couples yoga.
"When has the truth ever done anything but hurt, Carlos?"
"...Almost always?" said Carlos, as if she should already know that answer. "I thought we were over our affairs."
"So did I! So why did you bring them up in there?"
"Because she asked us if we'd ever been unfaithful."
"Couldn't we have just said we don't want to talk about it?"
"Yes, but..." Carlos paused. "Maybe I do."
They looked at each other, worried that maybe their therapy was stirring up things that would better be left alone.
"Come on." said Carlos, dropping the subject. Gabrielle's eyes had that worried look to them, and he didn't like seeing her that way. "We're going to be late for yoga."
* * *
"Why did you lie to him?" Orson asked Bree. They'd been let out a few minutes after Gabrielle and Carlos, and they had the same yoga appointment as the rest of them. Bree was a few steps ahead of him, and replied without looking back.
"Because I don't care." she said. "I want to take advantage of the amenities on this island, and they said once we complete our therapy they will be available to us. It's quite simple, Orson, I don't see what there is to be confused about."
Orson was quiet for a while after that. They'd almost made it back to their room when he said, "You really want to hurt me, don't you?"
Bree's heart felt heavy for a moment, before she shrugged off that feeling and brought the chill back to her attitude.
"If that's what it takes." she said. She quickened her pace, trying to distance herself from him before she could feel anything else. Orson slowed to a stop, and watched her walk away.
* * *
"Hey." said Mike as he and Katherine exited the quiet room and left their counselor behind. "You okay?"
Do you even care?! Katherine wanted to shout. She wanted to scream it in front of everyone, to make him feel the way she felt. But she didn't. Instead, she smiled and shrugged.
"I'm fine." she said. They were silent the rest of the way back.
* * *
Lynette was still huffy after the tense moment with their counselor, and Tom had to jog to catch up with her.
"Lynette, slow down!" Tom called after her in a hushed tone. It was so quiet on the island, it felt strange raising his voice. She stopped abruptly, her arms crossed, and she avoided eye contact.
"Lynette?" Tom said carefully. "Honey? You want to tell me what happened in there?"
"I just...needed an answer." was all she could say. She was embarrassed at her loss of control.
"Why?" Tom asked, patient as ever. He could see Lynette was really upset. Her eyes were getting wet.
"I'm flipping out." she said. "I don't know if we made the right decision coming here."
"What?" Tom said softly. "You were so sure last week. What happened?"
"We've never needed counseling before. Doesn't that say something to you? And everyone that came with us is miserable..."
"Hey." said Tom, taking her shoulders gently with his hands. It made her look him in the eye, which is how he was going to ground her and make sure she knew he was there for her. "Don't worry about everyone else. Sure, we may have begged and pressured them to stay here, but they all chose to stay. Now, as for us never needing counseling before...maybe we did, and we were too busy dealing with kids and work and cancer and the restaurant to take time out for ourselves. This isn't a negative thing, remember? Coming here is positive, constructive. We're gonna get through this."
Lynette searched his eyes. She still trusted Tom, but she needed just a tiny bit more assurance.
"You believe that?" she asked.
"Yes." His voice was so sure, and so earnest. "Do you?"
Lynette nodded. "Yes." she said, vowing then and there to put aside her worries and get on with it. Tom was relieved that his little speech had actually worked. Trying to convince Lynette of anything was like pole vaulting with a candy cane.
