Till Summer Do Us Part(60)

She toes the box with her foot. “Doesn’t seem like a big enough box for that.”

“Do you have experience in box sizes for sex swings?”

“Absolutely not,” she says. “This is just an assumption. I don’t even know what a sex swing looks like. Do you?”

“Do you really want to know the answer to that?”

She rolls her eyes. “Maybe not. Should we pick it up?”

“I don’t know. Should we?”

“I think we should.” She nudges me with her shoulder. “You pick it up.”

“You know, it’s not a bomb.”

“Could be. We don’t know.” She nudges me again. “Go ahead. Pick it up.”

Rolling my eyes, I snag the box and then open our cabin. She follows in behind me, keeping what I’m sure she believes is a safe distance from “the bomb.” News flash: if this is a bomb, she’s still going to be blown up.

“Is it heavy? Does it rattle? Does it feel like a sex swing?”

I lift it up and bring it close to my face, where I give it a quick sniff. “You know what…it does have the faint scent of a sex swing.”

She grips my arm. “Really?”

“No.” I set it down on the bed and then take off the top. Together, we lean over to look inside, and then at the same time, we both gasp. I’m the first to reach into the box as I pull out two big bags of Nerds Clusters. I raise them to the sky and say, “The angels have spoken!”

“Dear God in heaven,” she whispers as she pulls out another bag from the box. “We are rich!”

We tear into our respective bags immediately, putting a fistful in our mouths.

Chewing, she says, “Now this is the kind of prize I’m talking about. Screw the dildos, give me the Clusters.”

I pause as I’m about to put another fistful in my mouth. “You heard what you just said, right? Screw the dildos? Sorry to let you know, Pips, but that’s what you’re supposed to do.”

“Please don’t ruin this moment for me.” She pops another Nerds Cluster in her mouth.

Smiling, I do the same.





“How did we feel about our answers during the competition this morning?” Sanders asks as he scoots a ball around on the floor with a hockey stick.

He went and changed as well, now wearing a pair of Grinch pajama pants and a bright pink shirt with Camp Haven on the front. He’s paired the outfit with a Goofy baseball hat. You know, the one with the ears and teeth hanging down from the bill.

Normally, his attire doesn’t distract me, but today I’m having a hard time paying attention. I mean, at least pick a theme, man, and stick with it.

“I felt pretty good about the answers,” I say. “I felt they were honest, even if some of the answers hurt to hear.”

He flicks the ball against the wall, startling Scottie next to me. “What about you, Scottie? How did you feel about them?”

“Same,” she says as she scoots closer to me on the couch, probably out of the hope that I’ll block any ball that might come her way. “Hard to hear but necessary.”

“And how did you feel about the win?”

“Personally,” I say, “it makes me realize that when push comes to shove and we’re faced with something tough, we still have the ability to work together and get the task done.”

“Do you think that’s important in a marriage?” he asks as he starts bouncing the ball off the edge of the hockey stick.

“The ability to work together?” I ask. “Uh, yeah, because a marriage is like working with a team, right?”

He pauses and looks up at me, a smile on his face. “Precisely, Wilder.” He tosses the stick to the side and takes a seat across from us. “You both were asked if you were happy in your marriage, and both of you said no.” He looks between us. “Did you hear that? You both said no.”

I nod my head, keeping my lips locked, because I don’t really know what to say to that. From the corner of my eye, I catch Scottie bowing her head, and I can’t help but wonder what’s playing through her mind right now. It can’t be easy, going through these courses after a failed marriage. Does she wonder if things might have worked out if she had attended this camp with her ex?

“Not to mention you made it through the entire course arguing. Did you hear anyone else argue the way you were?”

“No,” I answer for the both of us.

“Precisely, which brings me to my point. We need to work on communication. That’s the biggest challenge in your relationship. If you paused for a moment to listen and communicate with each other, I don’t think you’d be in the position that you are now.”

“Probably,” I say.

“Which is why we’re going to practice listening and communicating today. I’m going to need you to turn toward each other and hold each other’s hands.”

Unsure of where this is going but excited, I turn toward Scottie and then take her hands in mine.

“No, this is not the position I want.” Sanders stands. “Wilder, lean back against the couch, and Scottie, I want you straddling his lap.”

“Wh-what?” she asks, her head snapping up to Sanders. “You want me to straddle him?”