Evelyn and Kathy take a break from their weekend marriage retreat.

[Originally published in Times of Israel.]

“He’s checking us out,” Kathy said.

Evelyn smiled, not surprised that bringing her wife to the weekend marriage retreat would raise some eyebrows.

Evelyn turned towards Mike, met his eyes, and delivered a friendly wink with the beautiful blue eyes Kathy had fallen for when they first met.

Mike responded with what Evelyn saw as more of a blink than a wink.

“The guy can’t even wink,” Evelyn said.

“Jerk,” Barbara snarled, unconcerned with who heard.

His lips frozen in an uncomfortable grin, Mike shuffled his chair further from Barb. He looked around the room at everyone but his wife.

“His wife looks so sad,” Kathy said under her breath. “Hard to imagine they’ll last the weekend.”

The women held hands as Ashley and AJ introduced themselves.

“What a cute couple. She’s so out there and he’s so nervous,” Kathy said, noticing AJ’s foot shaking as he struggled to keep his composure.

A woman behind them was trying to find the phone ringing a meow tune from somewhere deep in her purse, briefly lightening the room and giving AJ pause to figure out what he was going to say.

Evelyn and Kathy married six months earlier during the first week same-sex couples could legally get hitched after a Florida judge ruled the state’s gay-marriage ban was unconstitutional. They’d been a couple for ten years, rarely imagining a marriage certificate would be possible or actually make much of a difference to their lives.

They never thought it could potentially ruin a relationship they cherished.

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Tagged as: #lgbt, #romance, Marriage Education, marriage equality, relationship skills

Categorised in: American Life, Dating, Long Distance Relationships, Marriage Education, News