“I think this is it,” Justin said, unlatching a gate and walking down the path to the door. There was a sign in the yard, indicating they were at Gold Couple Therapy.

Justin rang the doorbell, while Brian looked around in disgust.

The door opened to reveal a thirty-something man with curly black hair and a kind smile. “Hello! Welcome.”

“Hello.” Justin smiled back, shaking the man's hand. “We're here for the therapy course.”

“Of course you are. Come in,” the man invited them, not questioning why Brian hadn't shaken his hand.

When they were inside, he led them to the sitting room, which doubled as his therapy room.

“First of all, let's introduce ourselves. My name is Ethan Gold.”

“Like the name of your business,” Brian drawled sarcastically.

Justin ignored his husband and answered their therapist. “We're Justin and Brian.”

Ethan nodded, waving to the sofa. “Let's sit down and discuss the problem.”

“There's no problem,” Brian snapped.

“There must be some trouble in your relationship to bring you to therapy.”

“One week is not long enough to explain our problems,” Justin mumbled.

“There is no problem, Justin. I told you. If you wanted a holiday, we could have gone to fucking Ibiza. But here we are in this crappy place because you're on your ambition tour to fix something that it ain’t broken.”

Justin folded his arms across his chest, glaring at Brian. “And if we'd gone to Ibiza, what would have happened? Same as at home - NOTHING.”

“Okay, you should both sit down. We need to have a chat,” Ethan said sternly.

“Who the fuck are you to dictate what I do?” Brian rounded to Ethan.

“I'm your therapist, and apparently both of you need me more than you know. So let's have a chat.”

With sour looks and nerves skyrocketing, Justin and Brian sat down on the sofa, as far from each other as possible.

Ethan sat across from them in his armchair, placing a notepad on the coffee table.

Brian and Justin

-Communication problems.

-Relationship problems.

-Accumulated anger.

Once he was done scribbling his first impression of the couple, Ethan looked up at them. Justin was picking at the cuticle of his thumb, and Brian was checking his phone.

“Okay. First rule. No phones unless there is an emergency,” Ethan explained.

“It is an emergency. I'm the CEO of a big ad company. They need me.”

“One hour - your company won't crash without you.”

Brian pocketed his phone, glaring daggers.

Justin was surprised to see Brian had listened to a virtual stranger. There was yet hope for him.

“This is a good start, I suppose. Tell me a little about yourselves. Brian is a businessman. What about you, Justin?”

“I paint.”

“So you're an artist? That's wonderful. I used to aspire to become a well-known violin player, but after a few failures, I gave up,” Ethan admitted.

“I almost gave up, too,” Justin whispered, catching Brian's eye. “But Brian was always there to encourage me. He's my rock.”

“Yeah, he needs a good kick in the ass every now and then,” Brian joked.

Ethan smiled despite himself. “I bet you guys don't have much time to talk or simply spend some time together with such busy schedules.”

“You got that right.” Justin sighed loudly.

“Well, but you must be home at the same time at some point, right? What do you do then?”

“Brian's practically attached to his phone. It's like an extension of his body. And well, I usually paint or sketch to kill time.”

Ethan frowned. “I meant when you're alone. Don't you talk about your day? What about more intimate things?”

“He paints and travels for his shows. I work twelve or more hours per day and sometimes travel to visit the branches of my company,” Brian said, aggravated with the stupid questions. “And what do you mean by intimate things?”

“Don't you sometimes travel together? I'm sure one of you can occasionally spare some time to accompany the other person.”

“We're busy with our own things,” Brian replied curtly.

“Justin?” Ethan asked softly. “Do you feel the same?”

“Uh, yeah. I guess.”

“You guess? How do you feel about being apart all the time?”

Carefully avoiding Brian’s eyes, Justin looked directly at Ethan. “I feel lonely,” he admitted in a small voice.

“What about you, Brian? Don't you miss your partner?”

“I see him every day. How could I miss him?” Brian bit out. He glanced at Justin, frowning a little. Feeling lonely? Justin should have told him about that.

Ethan figured Brian was starting to realize there were problems between him and Justin, but was too proud and stubborn to admit it.

“This brings us back to my previous question. How is your sex life?”

“That's none of your fucking business!”

Justin snorted, cupping a hand over his mouth when he realized he'd laughed at that question.

“I get it, Brian. You don't want to be here, but Justin thinks you need help to rediscover yourselves, to rekindle the fire.”

Brian scoffed. “Go sell that bullshit to someone who believes you! We're fine.”

“We're NOT fine!” Justin yelled suddenly, turning to Brian.

“We'll be fine,” Brian insisted, rolling his eyes.

“No, we won't! It's been going on for YEARS! Fucking years, Brian! It's fucking painful the way our marriage drags on day by day, month by month, year by year, filled with the same crap. I'm fucking DONE! You don't want help.” Justin got up, leaving the room and the house, tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Whoa!” Ethan was torn between running after Justin and confronting Brian about what had happened. He opted for staying.

Brian was staring in the direction Justin had gone, mouth hanging open and eyes huge. He finally stood shakily, scared to death. He'd managed to push Justin too far.

It was true that their marriage wasn't what it used to be, but there was so little time; yet, he could have found some time for his husband. He had to do something.

“I’d better go... Check if... he's okay,” Brian said, worried.

“I'm sure Justin needs to cool down. Whatever you say to him now might damage the situation even more. I think you should stay. I'd like to talk to you alone,” Ethan encouraged him.

“Well, I have nothing to tell you.”

Brian was in the living room's doorway when Ethan's words stopped him.

“This kind of behavior made Justin so desperate as to contact me. If you keep up being so negative and dismissive of everything he says, anyone says, you may lose a lot.”

Brian looked back at Ethan, then continued out the door.

On the way to the cottage, Brian found a hole-in-the-wall pub. Getting shit-faced sounded like a great idea.

As he drank, Brian kept thinking about his relationship with Justin. He wasn't sure how they'd ended up in this dark place.

They had used to be happy. They’d had amazing sex.

Things had gone downhill when Justin had accepted an agent's offer to move to New York for the summer when he was twenty-two. He'd made a name for himself, and the distance had added something more to their sex life. Until Brian couldn't handle it anymore and had brought up their separation. Justin had been on the next plane back home.

Everything had been perfect, even better than at the beginning of their tremendous relationship.

Some years later, Brian had mustered the courage to ask Justin to be his forever and, since marriage between same-sex couples had been legalized in New York, they had escaped there for a wonderful week.

Their happiness had not lasted. Brian had expanded his company and Justin had gotten swamped in commissions.Their times alone got scarcer and farther in between, to the point that they only had sex occasionally. About which, the old Brian would have an aneurysm if he'd known the way the future Brian would turn out.

It was dark outside when he picked his way to their cottage.Brian was afraid of what he'd find in their room. Justin gone? Justin packing, ready to admit defeat and leave? Justin crying?He quietly walked into their room, locked the door behind him, and looked around. It was too quiet.

With his heart thumping in his chest, he went in search of his husband. To his relief, he found him in bed, surrounded by crumpled tissues. As heartbreaking as the sight was, Brian was happy that Justin hadn't fled. It would have been typical of Justin to leave, to distance himself from what hurt him.

As Brian stared at Justin, he realized it had been too long since they'd fallen asleep together, holding each other. The sad part was that he couldn't give in to his sudden desire. Justin was sprawled across the bed, and if Brian jostled him as he got into the bed, he would awaken and raise hell.

So he went to the couch, which was too small for his big frame.