The next morning, I woke up and was thinking about what had happened the previous day. The flashbacks of our opposites were in my head as if they were a bad dream. "No Tyler I never said that at all!" I suddenly heard from downstairs. "Then what exactly were you saying to me Kris?" I heard. "I don't know, you tell me what I was saying to you!" Kris yelled. I crept to the staircase and then saw Tyler slap Kris. I could understand yelling and arguing as a couple, which was fine because couples needed to work out their problems, but hitting a lady? That was what crossed the line. I quickly ran downstairs and said, "Not appropriate Tyler !" Suddenly, both Kris and Tyler looked at me. "I understand that you both were angry at each other which is okay, but was it necessary to hit Kris?" I asked. "I guess not." Tyler replied guiltily. "Both of you need to sit at the table and tell me what in the world has you two arguing." I said to them. We all sat down at the table in the living room and then Kris started to talk. "Well, what happened was that Tyler claims that I said that I was cheating on him which is what I was NOT at all saying." "Then what were you say-" I quickly made the quiet sign with my finger. "Tyler, Kris wasn't finished talking yet. Let her finish and then you can say what you were going to." I replied. "Alright." Tyler said. "As I was saying, I wasn't telling Tyler that I was cheating on him, I was telling him that I had been hanging out for a little bit with one of my good friends, Lucas Moreno!" Kris said. "Okay now Tyler , you tell me what you were going to say." I said. "Well what I was saying was that I was asking Kris what she was trying to tell me and then we got into this argument." Tyler said. "I want to know what exactly was said that made you think she was cheating on you." I said. "Well, Kris was saying that she was out late with one of her guy friends and then she said that he had kissed her." Tyler said. "No Tyler , he had kissed my hand as a gentlemanly gesture as all my other guy friends including you have done with me. I wasn't cheating at all. I would never even CONSIDER that option." Kris replied. "Oh." was all Tyler replied with. "Okay, now that we've both said our sides of the story, we can start to find the solution." I said. "What it seems like to me, is that Kris was out late, which you knew about Tyler I presume, and then Tyler, you claim that she was saying that she was cheating on you yes?" I asked. "Yes you have that right Vent." Tyler and Kris replied at the same time. "Good. Now from what I've gathered from your statements, that certainly is not the case at all." I said. "Then what is the case Vent?" Tyler asked me. "Well, it seems that all Kris was doing, was spending time with one of her old friends right Kris?" I asked. "Yes, I even told him that I was going to do that so that there was no suspicion." Kris said. "Thank you, so the solution that I think we should do is that we have a little bit more of a listening ear instead of an assumption right off the bat okay guys?" I replied. "Yeah." they said. "Now about the hitting, Tyler that is NEVER and I mean NEVER okay to do no matter how you feel especially to a lady. Do you understand that?" I said. " Yeah, I do understand that. I'm so sorry Kris." He then saw the bruise that had formed on her arm. "I forgive you. Please don't do that again okay?" Kris replied. Tyler said yes and then they hugged. It made me feel better that they were hugging and that they'd made up with each other. "Uh Vent, would you and Bri be willing to counsel us?" Kris asked. "Of course we would." Bri, who was coming down the stairs and I said at the same time. "Cool." Tyler replied. We'd decided to do it every Monday and Wednesday since that would be when we were the least busy. Since today was Monday, we decided to start it right after Lunch. After Lunch, we went into the counseling room. "Okay guys, today's session is going to be mainly about the acronyms of a healthy marriage." Bri said. (Kris and Tyler had gotten married a while back.) "Okay so what are they?" Tyler asked. "Well, these are the ones that help our marriage. They're E.V.O.L., L.O.V.E., S.T.E.P. ,T.H.I.N.K. and G.A.M.E." I said. "S.T.E.P. stands for, Stop Think Elaborate and Pray. The Stop means when you have an argument, to stop arguing and go on to the Think. You think about what you were arguing about and Elaborate on it. Finally, when you Elaborate, you Pray about it and then continue on with what you were doing before you started arguing. You also can think of Everyone Very Oustandingly Loves. Ironically that's Love spelled backwards. When you two feel like you may hate your spouse because of something they did or you're angry, you can remember this one. Another one that is incredibly important is Love Others Very Excitingly. I know that this one sounds weird, but it's not at all. This'll help with when you guys aren't quite feeling a spark in your marriage. Then we have Treat Her Intelligently Nicely Kindly. This is really only for the guys. What this one is telling you, is to remember how exactly to treat your wife. When you treat her with intelligece and kindness with a hint of nice, you're both less likely to have fights and have a better marriage. Finally, Give All Marriage Excitement. This'll help you remember to keep the marriage as exciting as possible." I said. "Wow. Those sound easy enough to remember." Kris replied. "Good. Now comes the individual part of the counseling. Bri'll take Kris, and I'll take Tyler okay?" I said. They both responded with a yes and then Bri was off with Kris to talk to her. "Okay dude, so this is where we individually talk. I want to ask you how you're feeling about the marriage so far?" I asked. "Well, I'm sort of nervous. We seem to fight over a few things and I don't know what to do about it." Tyler said. "Well- okay Tyler. You need to think about it this way. You are like her rock. What I mean here is that you're her support no matter what. If she's pregnant and in labor, If she's having a rough day, even if she's pissed off at you, you're there for her. If you think of it that way, you're also less likely to have fights. I know that the first year of marriage is hard believe me, but you have to do your best to try to understand where she may be coming from. Do you get me?" I said. "Yeah. Another thing, how in the world am I supposed to let my anger out when I get mad at her?" Lucas asked. "That is one of the best questions that I am so glad that you asked me. When you get mad at Kris, you need to use an "I feel" statement. This can help both of you convey your anger so that both of you understand how the other feels. It's very important that you do this so that you can see the problem and come up with a reasonable solution. When you feel like you're about to blow, you need to look directly at Kris, and tell her that you'll be back in 5. Then you go for a five minute walk and then come back and try to talk the problem out. Does that help at all?" I said. "Oh yes it does, thank you so much Vent." Tyler said. "Not a problem at all." I said. Just as Tyler and I were finishing up the individual counseling, Bri and Kris walked back into the room. "Okay guys, I think we're ready to wrap up the session." I said. "Now before we close out, I want each of you to say, I love you, I know that you love me too and I want to make this marriage work." Bri said. They both said it and then we left. We then spent the rest of the day playing with Miguehle who had gotten much bigger now, and then going to sleep. I went to sleep feeling relieved that I had been able to help Kris and Tyler with their problem.