After a night
when most of the participants had had enough one-on-one time to satisfy
them, they ate breakfast together. Bob and Lori arrived last,
coming in the door that came from the parking lot. Roberta raised
an eyebrow, but Lori didn't catch her meaning and just chattered like
normal.
They never even made it to the conference room.
"I was
wondering," said Jane, during a lull in the conversation. "Since
we're not your normal group ... and since we seem to be doing very well
in the relationship forming ... exercises, and since we only have today
and tomorrow before we all have to go back home ... wouldn't it be
better for us to hone the skills we’ve already learned, instead
of trying to learn more that we won't really have time to practice?"
"You mean practice with Roger," said Bob.
Jane blushed. "Well ... yes ... I suppose that's what I meant."
Bob looked
around. They were all definitely couples this morning. He
hadn't expected it, but somehow, the pairs had gotten serious about
each other. He was seeing little things that he usually only saw
with couples who were very happy, and probably didn't need his seminar
in the first place. A lot of very happy people came to his
seminars, because they were always looking for ways to make their
relationship better. That's why they had such good ones in the
first place. He never told them that, though. He just gave
them more things to try. Sometimes it made a difference.
Usually, those kinds of couples just got a second honeymoon, though.
"What do the rest of you think?" he asked.
"I could force myself to spend the day with Crystal," said Woody, leaning against her. He got an elbow in the ribs.
"We have a problem," said Roberta.
"Yes?" asked Bob.
"We've fallen in love with each other," she said.
"You and Jeff?" he asked.
"Probably more than just him and me," she said, looking around.
"Why is that a problem?" he asked.
"We're all going
back home in two days!" she said. "For some of us, we've
just found the best thing in our lives, and we're going to have to let
go of that."
"Options," said Bob. "You're not thinking options."
"Come on," she said heatedly. "What options do we have. We have jobs ... homes ... people depend on us."
"If you had to
choose between your job ... or Jeff ... and you could have one or the
other ... which would you choose?" he asked.
"That's not fair," she moaned.
"Of course it
is," he said. "You said it was the most important thing you ever
found. Is it more important than your job?"
Roberta looked at Bob, then at Jeff, then at the table, then back at Jeff, then at Bob once more.
"I'd choose Jeff." Her head was high. "I could always get another job."
"Now you're
thinking about options," said Bob. "Just because you were all
strangers when you got here doesn't mean you have to leave each other's
lives when you leave here. It all depends on what is most
important in your life. For some of you ... many of you, I'd
suspect, your life back wherever may have a greater claim on your
loyalty than what you found here in a mere week. But not
necessarily. Like Roberta said ... you can always get
another job." He shook his finger from side to side.
"But remember too ... you can fall in love with more than just one
person."
"I don't like that part," said Woody. "I don't want to be in love with anybody else."
He got another elbow in the ribs from Crystal. "Who said I'm in love with you?" she growled.
"You did, dear, last night, when I was ..." The others laughed as her hand snapped up to cover his mouth.
"I'm going to
move my hand to your lap, now," she said, loudly enough for everyone
else to hear. "And it's not going to be for the purpose of making
you happy. If you say another word, in fact, I'm going to make
you very UN-happy."
Her hand dropped from his mouth, and disappeared under the table. Woody tensed.
"You were saying Woody?" asked Roger, grinning.
Woody picked up
a biscuit and stuffed it in his mouth. Then he made noises and
pointed at his full mouth, shrugging, as if to say he couldn't talk
with his mouth full. Crystal brought her left hand from
under the table, and faced the rest of them again. Her
right hand slipped from view, though, and Woody stayed fairly tense.
Bob looked
around. "I think maybe Roberta is right. If you all have
been forming real relationships, then you need all the time you have
left to decide what to do about that. I sympathize with you
there. Making these kinds of decisions is very difficult, even
under the best of circumstances, and these are not the best of
circumstances. Why don't you all spend the day
together. We can get together again at the hot tub tonight, and
see how things are going."
They all perked up at that, and there was much more eating than talking for the rest of breakfast.
