Monday came and Bobby and Allie were back to therapy. "Alright, last week, we left off with Bobby possibly having a baby with his ex mistress. Has that been resolved?" Leah asked them.
"It has." Bobby replied. "I'm not the father of her baby."
"Alright." Leah replied. "And I assume everyone is happy about that."
"I am." Allie replied. "It just makes this a little easier not having to deal with that."
"I agree." Bobby added. "This makes working to save our marriage easier. Having Alexa out of our lives."
"Alright, good." Leah replied. "Now, Allie, you have expressed your fear that Bobby might cheat on you again. That's the worry of almost every wife who has been cheated on. Do you still have that worry that he might be tempted to cheat again?"
"I believe he regrets the affair and while I do worry he might again. I honestly believe he won't." She looked at him. "I know I love him and I know he loves me. So, I honestly believe he won't but the worry will always be there."
"Bobby, your reply?"
"I understand Allie's feelings. It is hard to rebuild trust after it's broken."
"That is true it is." Leah replied. "Do you think you will be tempted to cheat?"
"Temptation is a part of life. I know that. But I won't cheat on Allie again. I love her and Carlie. I see how much this affair hurt them both and I won't do that again." He turned to Alllie. "There is nothing more important to me than you and Carlie."
"Allie?"
"I agree that temptation is a part of life. For everyone." She added. "But hearing how much he loves me and Carlie, I know he won't cheat again. And that helps rebuild the trust that was broken."
"Alright good." Leah replied. "Now that we have that out of the way, I want us to talk about how that trust can be rebuilt. Having trust in your marriage is a big deal. So, what are ways that the trust can be rebuild."
"I believe we have started that." Allie replied. "Alexa is out of our lives. She is no longer working for Bobby. We have been following the rules you set. We have been talking honestly with each other. We are slowing rebuilding the trust."
"That's good." Leah replied. "I'm glad you both are following the no contact rule. It helps with everything. Some couples feel sex is the way to fix their marrige and it's not. You have to be willing to work on everything in the marriage and leave the physical side out."
"And we have." Bobby replied.
"Alright. I have a trust building exercise for you both." Leah said grabbing two small notebooks from the desk. "I want you each to write in this notebook every day for the next week. Each day, you will write your feelings down as well as what you are doing when you are writing them down. Also, if you like, you can write down anything you wish to discuss in therapy." She handed them each one. She looked at them. "Is there something else you wish to discuss?"
"Allie's brother." Bobby replied.
"What about him?"
"He hates me and he makes no bones about it." He replied. "He came to see me and tried to convince me to divorce Allie."
Allie sighed. "He came to see me to ask me to divorce Bobby." She turned to Bobby. "Phil thinks you're a liar, selfish and conceited. And he had to make sure he told me that."
"He said that to me too."
"Alright. Allie, do you feel Bobby is like that?"
"No. Phil doesn't see the side I see of my husband. I know he lied to me about the affair for months but that's over. As for being selfish and conceited, that's just how he comes off to people sometimes. And I'm well aware of that."
"Bobby, do you feel you are those things?"
He laughed a little. "Well, I never really thought about it until Phil brought it up. And I know lied to Allie about the affair. And I guess I can be selfish but everyone can at one point or another. Am I conceited? Yeah, some of the time I am."
Leah laughed. "Alright. Allie, do you agree with Bobby?"
"I do. Everyone can be selfish, me included. And I knew he was conceited the moment we met. And if this sounds odd, I'm sorry. But he's cocky attitude and him being a little conceited is part of what attracted me to him. So, it's not a big revelation."
"Alright." Leah laughed. "Well, I think we made some good progress today. So, see you both Wednesday and remember to write in the notebooks." Both Allie and Bobby headed out and home.
The next few weeks went by as they continued with therapy and writing in the notebooks as requested. They were getting their fears and thoughts out. They were expressing everything they were feeling. Each session helped to rebuild their marriage piece by piece.
"So, how is therapy going?" Brianne asked her sister as they were having coffee at Brianne's house.
"It's going good. We have made a lot of progress. We are rebuilding our marriage piece by piece."
"The month of no intimate contact is soon up right?"
"Next week." Allie replied.
"So what then?"
"Well, Bobby and I have to decide when we want to move back into the same place and where we want to live together with Carlie."
"Are you going back to the house?"
"I don't know. I'm torn." Allie replied. "It is the home we bought together when we got married and the home we were raising Carlie in. But then again, every time I'm there I can't bring myself to go to the master bedroom because I always see him and her together there. Even if we change the bed, it's still in that room that my husband had sex with another woman."
"Do you maybe want to stay in your rental house and have Bobby move in there?"
"Well, no." She replied. "I was thinking about a new house. New start, new house."
"That sounds good."
"Yeah. I also was thinking about a vow renewal ceremony. Everything to make a new start." She looked at her sister. "I mean why not? We can renew our vows, and move into a new house. The perfect way to start anew."
"I can see that being a good thing. Have you talked to Bobby about that?"
"Not yet. I'm going to in therapy this week." She smiled before taking a deep breath.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just a little dizzy and nauseous. I haven't eaten today. So my blood sugar is probably low."
"Let me get you something." Brianne said as she headed to the fridge. She took out the fruit salad she had made and put some into a bowl for Allie. "Here you go. Fruit salad."
"Thanks." Allie replied and took some bites. "It's good but did you put in something different than you normally do?"
"No. Everything like always." Brianne looked at her sister. "Does it taste different?" She thought maybe it had gone bad but she had just made it earlier that day.
"It does to me." Allie replied. "Like a metallic taste."
"Metallic?" Brianne said and grabbed a fork and took a bite. "Tastes normal to me." She looked at her sister. "Are you pregnant?"
"What?" Allie asked.
"Are you pregnant?" Brianne asked again. "When I was pregnant with Sophia, everything tasted like metallic for the first two months."
"Bri, I think we know I can't be pregnant." Allie replied. "I haven't gone in for any kind of fertility treatments. And the doctor said I couldn't get pregnant without the treatments and inviro. And I haven't taken any fertility drugs since we got pregnant with Carlie."
"Maybe you should just take a test anyway."
"Bri, we know I can't be."
"Just take it for me. I have some because Chris and I are trying for another baby."
Allie sighed. "Alright, I will take one. But we both know it will be negative. I can't get pregnant without inviro." She followed Brianne to the bathroom and took the pregnancy test when she got there. She knew she wasn't pregnant. After how much medical help it took to have Carlie, she doubted she was pregnant without any. She and Bobby did inviro twice before it took and she carried Carlie to term. She knew she couldn't be pregnant without medical help.
