A few weeks after our date at the anonymous bar we headed off on a family vacation, making sure to pack our small library of nonmonogamy books to read poolside. I was not only celebrating the vacation, but the clarity I had gained about closing my reiki practice. The week before we flew out, I moved out of my office. It was a relief. I didn’t realize until I stopped seeing clients how much pressure I had been putting on myself to be perfect for them. If I was going to be wading around in their energetic field during a reiki session, I thought I better be as close to perfect as I could be. Which didn’t make me any “better,” I just felt worse about myself. Especially as I was becoming so preoccupied by (and ashamed of) relationships outside my marriage.
I was celebrating something else, too, if only privately. The Musician was going to be performing that weekend near the resort where we were staying. I’m not sure why I didn’t come right out and admit that I engineered the whole thing, that I had planned our vacation to coincide with their tour. I guess because I still hadn’t realized: there is nothing more powerful than the truth.
Instead of coming out with it, I mentioned it obliquely to Jack as we were brushing our teeth the first night of the trip.
“I saw in the paper The Musician is playing this weekend,” I said, turning on my electric toothbrush.
“This weekend, huh?”
I suspected this was Jack’s shorthand for, “I don’t believe this is a coincidence.”
I talked around my toothbrush in reply, “I know. Isn’t that crazy!”
This was my shorthand for, “Thank you for not making me admit that I did this on purpose.”
We didn’t talk about it again until the morning of the show as I was stirring scrambled eggs on the stovetop.
“Are you planning on going tonight?” Jack asked.
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