Temper Temper

Grant scooped up a giggling Angie in his arms and carried her across the threshold of their new house. A lot had happened since that day in Judge Everly's chambers.

It had been awkward at first. After Grant had seen her embrace the judge, he wanted to pick her up and twirl her around, but he had a flash of a memory of holding a vase in the air, threatening a man; and he hesitated. He knew the judge was right, they had a lot to work through.

Angie was embarrassed, and for some reason angry, and maybe for the first time ever, sick of it and the way it had interfered in her life. She saw Grant and realized how close she came to throwing it all away, and knew it was going to be a long road.

In the end, they had approached each other almost awkwardly and just held hands and promised to talk later and then left.

It wasn't until the following week they managed to have their first session. It had been set up so there were three one-hour sessions every Wednesday. The first and last hours were individual and the middle was joint. They were scheduled to swap who went first and last each week.

For two weeks, Angie stayed with her parents, both agreeing on taking it slow, but also avoiding her having to deal with the nosy neighbors. They talked every day, at first after work, but as the days passed, they stayed on with each other longer and started talking before work and at lunch. There were tears and laughter, but the ratio improved steadily in their favor.

Early on, they agreed that Grant would look for an apartment and then put the house on the market. They would decide the next steps later. They accepted an offer on the house two days after it was put on the market and did well.

The counseling went well; both individual and joint and of course Angie's anger management classes, which she had told Grant about. His reaction had been to say,

"Don't let them take all of the fight out of you! I like you feisty!"

That had resulted in a few tears for Angie as it helped her understand how much he loved her for who she was.

Their counselor had let them know the first week how happy she was that they wanted to get back together, she usually dealt with couples that didn't. She made it clear that there would still be obstacles because cheating, real or imagined, hurts, and pain takes time to heal.

Grant again learned how he could have avoided this and truly shouldered his share of the blame for their near breakup. He also realized that some of his attitudes about male female relationships, especially at work, were out of date. It was not acceptable for him to allow women to be inappropriate. He learned how to set boundaries with women. The counselor had them explore Angie's decision to choose the guest room, and they realized, despite what she was doing, she loved him too much to do it in their bed.

Angie learned that she had to be comfortable in her own skin and not compare herself to some false image of the perfect Texas woman. Grant chose her and loved her the way she was. If he'd wanted something else, that's what he would have pursued. Grant learned he could help her with this by giving her the reassurance she needed. He also needed to not let Angie's anger make him shut down. Angie had to realize she could fully trust him around other women, of course she'd already seen the proof of that!

Ultimately, it was just like Judge Everly said, they needed to communicate. They were committed to learning, and they did. Their counselor gave them an assignment; each week, they needed to tell each other something that made them feel vulnerable to help build trust. It worked.

Angie helped set up the apartment, and moved in about a month after they had their first counseling session. That was when they hit their first major issue...sex. It was awkward and they both realized they still had things to deal with. They talked to their counselor about it, and he recommended a sex therapist.

It was life changing. It too, took time, but they did end up being intimate again after a month of sleeping in the same bed. They learned to openly talk about their desires, likes and dislikes, they learned Angie had a higher libido than Grant and how to deal with it. Before another month was gone, they were having the best sex of their life and feeling more in love than they ever had.

Friends and family were thrilled to see the change for the better. Some never even knew what had happened but recognized the new bond they had. Carla and Angie were back to their old selves and Carla even went to some anger management classes herself!

Angie's new control of her emotions was reflected at work, and she was offered a new position, opening, and running the office for her coffee shop company in Livingston. She even got to keep her normal hours, no late nights! Grant was now a better version of his old self and was impressing in his new position. As Grant's office was near the airport, they decided to find a house somewhere in between. They ended up buying one in Cleveland, Texas and loved it. They closed four months after their day with the judge.

Angie kept going to the anger management counseling until they told her she was wasting her time. They still see both the marriage and sex counselors about every two months and still learn about each other.

A week before they moved, Angie showed up at Grants office so they could go to lunch. They popped in and said hello to Hugh and then headed out. As they were walking through the lobby, Kelly Dyson walked in from outside.

Grant felt Angie's grip tighten on his hand, but they continued to walk. Kelly's eyes widened when she spotted them and she put her head down and veered off to one side, avoiding getting anywhere near them.

Once they were outside, Grant looked down and saw Angie was a little red in the face. Then she spoke through gritted teeth.

"That bitch! I ought to..."

She cut herself off and took a deep breath. Grant looked down at his fiery little wife. He smiled, glad to see her spirit was controlled, but not gone!