The Marriage Intervention by Hilary Dartt Page B

understand.”  
    A few seconds ticked by. For a split second, Scott looked shocked and maybe even hurt. Then his expression became unreadable. Blank.  
    Again, she felt vaguely uncomfortable.  
    “Okay then,” she said. “I guess that’s it.”  
    She turned around to open the door. Through the pane window, she could see Cheryl and Tammy in the front office, still holding suspiciously still.  
    “Josie,” he said.  
    She turned toward him, her hand still on the doorknob.  
    “I want you to know that my invitation to drinks was purely professional. I wouldn’t do anything to break up your marriage.”  
    Josie nodded—an automatic response. But inside, she actually felt stupid. Of course his invitation was purely professional. They had been over for a long time. For the past seven years, their relationship remained purely professional. The steam started rising only recently, because Scott was leaving Juniper Elementary. Belatedly, she realized maybe there was no steam. She probably just imagined he was looking at her in that sexual way.  
    On-the-spot, her ego stinging, she spit out a bitchy response.  
    “You know, Scott, I want to believe you. And I would believe you if you weren’t so … so … slick. Everything is part of your master plan. You wouldn’t have asked me for drinks if you didn’t plan on getting something out of it.” Then, just for emphasis, she added, “So there.”  
    As she strode out of Scott’s office, she pretended not to notice Cheryl and Tammy, their identical expressions of surprise, mouths hanging open and eyes following her quick exit.  
    How could I have been so stupid? Of course he meant the invitation in a professional way. He doesn’t even think of me that way anymore.  
    Even while her less-than-sane inner voice chastised her for her foolish behavior, Josie’s practical voice piped up with its own message: He’s lying. He just had to cover his tracks. He thought you’d come running into his arms now that he’s leaving Juniper Elementary, and he’s probably just as embarrassed as you are.  
    Which one was the truth?  
    Josie couldn’t be sure. But she did know she was proud of herself for standing her ground and choosing her marriage. She felt a whole lot lighter.  
    On the second-floor landing she saw Blair Upton standing in her classroom doorway, glaring at Josie. She almost certainly would mistake Josie’s carefree attitude for post-coital bliss, or something like it. But Josie didn’t care.
    She pushed the niggling sadness out of her mind, and wrote the morning bell work on the board: Explain the term, “mixed feelings.” What does it mean? Have you ever experienced it?  

     

     
     
    ***
    Josie loved her weekly Rowdy’s Happy Hour with Summer and Delaney, but tonight she was dreading it. Really dreading it.  
    The girls would expect a report on her first marriage counseling appointment, and she didn’t want to reveal that Paul had a list of complaints as long as hers, if not longer.  
    But they were her best friends, they meant well and more importantly, she and Summer had absolutely dissolved any semblance of privacy when they stalked Delaney during The Dating Intervention.  
    She looked at her watch. Five minutes after four. Late, as usual.  
    Josie pushed open both of Rowdy’s swinging doors and paused in the doorway. She took a deep breath and gathered her confidence, then walked toward their table as if she wasn’t about to be forced to reveal every weakness she brought to her marriage.  
    “Whoa, you just looked like the cover of a romance novel, silhouetted in the doorway like that, the sun shining in behind your sexy body,” Summer said as Josie slid onto her barstool. “I’m starting to look like a puff pastry over here and there you are, as curvy and hot as ever.”  
    “Oh, Summer. You’re the most beautiful pregnant lady we know,” Delaney said.  
    Glad for the distraction, Josie beamed at both of them.  
    “How