Adultery The Aarogya Wellness and Intimacy Clinic

[prasannas2001]

 

 
"I'm broken," Seema whispered into the pillow.
 
"You're not."
 
"I am. I'm broken."
 
He didn't argue with her.
 
He just lay down beside her and held her, and eventually, she cried herself to sleep.
 
The third week, she didn't try.
 
She couldn't.
 
The fear had grown teeth, and now it waited for her every time she thought about sex.
 
She started avoiding his touch, not obviously, not cruelly, but subtly.
 
She kept a little more distance on the sofa.
 
She went to bed earlier.
 
She woke up later.
 
She found reasons to be busy, to be tired, to be anywhere but in his arms.
 
She saw the hurt in his eyes.
 
She saw the way he started to hesitate before he touched her, the way he asked permission for things he used to do naturally, a hand on her back, a kiss on her cheek, a moment of closeness at the end of the day.
 
She saw him shrinking himself, making himself smaller, trying not to be a threat.
 
And it broke her heart, because he was not the threat.
 
She was.
 
One night, she woke from a dream she couldn't remember and found him lying awake beside her, staring at the ceiling.
 
The room was dark, but she could see the outline of his profile, the tense line of his jaw.
 
"Naveen?"
 
He didn't look at her.
 
"Yeah."
 
"Are you okay?"
 
A long pause.
 
Then: "I don't know."
 
She reached for him, her hand finding his in the dark.
 
He let her hold it.
 
He didn't squeeze back.
 
"I don't know what to do," he said.
 
His voice was quiet, raw.
 
"I don't know how to help you.
 
I don't know what I'm doing wrong."
 
"You're not doing anything wrong."
 
"Then what is it?" He turned his head, finally looking at her.
 
"What is it, Seema? Why can't you, why can't we, "
 
She had no answer.
 
She had no words.
 
She just lay there, holding his hand, and felt the distance between them widen like a crack in the earth.