The Relationship Coach

by Sylvia McDaniel

  There was no doubt he was interested in appearances. But could he only be interested in his career? Her mother’s words echoed in her head, and she wondered if her mother could be right about Dean using her for his career. Was she “the perfect” companion who would help him climb the corporate ladder?

  If that were true, could her mother be right about the lack of passion in Lacey’s relationship?

  ***

  Lacey stood in front of the audience, giving her seminar. She had presented this lecture so many times, she could recite it backwards, but today felt different. Somehow her confidence seemed to be in the toilet. The excitement she normally felt when she spoke about relationships was right in the crapper with her confidence.

  She hit the clicker on the PowerPoint presentation. “Now we’re going to talk about communication.” She paused and walked across the stage. “How many of you have ever had a problem with communication?”

  A ripple of laughter filtered through the audience, and almost everyone held up their hand.

  “Do you feel like sometimes you’re speaking a different language than your partner? Do you feel like he or she hears you?” She paused for emphasis. “How many of you are busy thinking of your response, rather than really hearing your partner? Don’t you think the other person knows you’re not really listening? The basis of good communication is good listening.”

  She let the words sink in and thought of Dean. Even though she was fighting it, she knew her own personal relationship interfered with her performance today, and that frustrated her. As the leader of the seminar, she should be an example. Her relationship should be what her clients strived for, and yet the thought of Dean left her feeling almost slimy. And that couldn’t be good.

  “A good habit to start is to repeat back to your partner what they’ve told you. This way they know you heard what was said. In other words, phrase it kind of like this… ‘You want me to pay off my credit card debt before I charge anything else.’”

  Had he heard her when she said she would pay a bigger percentage of the rent in order to let him pay off his loans? He’d heard the bigger percentage of the rent, but what about his paying off his loans? Had he missed that part?

  “Another example, ‘When you say I’m overweight, it makes me feel like you don’t love me.’” She paused. “See? I owned up to my feelings about what the other person made me feel. I could just as easily have said, ‘When you say I’m overweight, it makes me angry.’” She walked across the stage and stopped right in front of the audience. “I didn’t scream; I didn’t yell. I spoke slowly and precisely, choosing my words with care.”

  She hit the button, and the PowerPoint slide showed two people screaming at one another. “Do you think they’re hearing what the other person is yelling at them? Do you think that name calling and screaming gets through to the other person?”

  “Studies show that people shut down when you start yelling. You may be screaming the problem to the world, but your partner has shut down, closed his ears, and gone to his happy place.”

  The crowd chuckled.

  “Anger is better handled with slow, precise words in a soft, but firm tone. When I say communicate, it doesn’t mean exercising your lungs to the point your neighbors two doors down hear you. It means speaking to where the other person knows what’s going on with you, and you’re clear in your communication about how you feel.”

  But Dean looked so good on paper. At least, the part she knew he wasn’t lying about. The credit issue had come out of the blue, and now she couldn’t help but wonder what else she didn’t know about him.

  Lacey hit the slide button and the words Deal Breaker came up on the screen. She wanted to gasp. “Do you know what your deal breakers are?”

  “A deal breaker is something that will absolutely end the relationship. For some people, its children, alcohol, drugs, cheating, religion, friends, bars, jobs, or even marriage.”

  It almost seemed like her own presentation was talking to her today. Like she was the client.

  “These are things you cannot accept, and you’re not willing to change. It’s things that, no matter how much you may love the person, you won’t accept. Let me give you an example.”

  She took a deep breath, and her mind went blank with her usual example. She walked across the stage, and all she could visualize was Dean and his damn credit card debt. No matter how she tried. that big black Mercedes rolled into view, and she wanted to scream “what have you done?”

  She gave up. “Let’s say you and your partner have agreed you’re going to pay off all your bills. Then you come home, and when you pull into the driveway, there sits a brand new car. An expensive car. You go in the house, and your spouse or partner tells you the deal was just ‘too good to pass up.’ At this point, you have to decide. Is this a deal breaker? Was this a great deal he couldn’t pass up or is this a bigger indication of how he will respond to money choices the rest of his life? Does he have issues with money, and instead of you helping to give him some order in life, is he going to drag you down? Will he take your good credit score and trash it, until you share a seat with him in the slow boat to financial ruin?”

  She paused, stunned at the words that had just come out of her mouth. They weren’t part of the script. She glanced over at Reed, and he smiled at her, while Ty filmed.

  God, as they’d taped her, she’d opened a vein in her heart and bled her personal business all over the stage. If she were speaking to a client, she would have told her to cut bait and run. Was she ready to do just that?

  Run from the one man she’d thought would be her husband. The man her mother said she had no passion with. The man her sister said was cold.

  Was the big black Mercedes a deal breaker?

  ***

  Lacey watched as Reed packed away the camera equipment. She hated to ask him, but Amanda was going to stay at the hotel and take care of the logistics of getting their tapes and books shipped back to the office and pay the hotel. Lacey just wanted to get home. The situation with Dean weighed heavy on her, and she wasn’t sure how it would be resolved. Somehow moving in with him no longer held the appeal it once had. She needed to make some decisions.

  “Hi,” she said, walking up to Reed.

  “Hi,” he responded as he packed away sound equipment. “What’s up?”

  “Could I ask you a favor?”

  “Sure. What do you need?”

  “A ride. Could you drop me off at the office, where I can pick up my car? Amanda needs several more hours, and well, I’m ready to go home.” She needed some downtime to examine her feelings, determine if she could continue with Dean.

  “No problem. I’m almost finished packing. Ty left in the van. Do you mind riding in my old car?”

  “I have a fondness for old cars.”

  “Great, let’s go.”

  She followed him out the door and crawled into his 70’s Mustang. Stunning blue with black interior, it reminded her of an old Steve McQueen movie she’d seen as a kid.

  “You got the problem fixed?” she said, buckling up her seat belt.

  “Yeah, the alternator went out, which drained the battery. I love old muscle cars. They’re kind of a hobby of mine. There’s nothing like the sound of a V8 on a clear night.”

  “I guess. I’ve never thought of it that way. I just like my little Prius to get me across town and save money on gas. Quiet, too, nothing rumbling.”

  He pulled out of the hotel parking lot onto the roadway. “Yeah, but you can’t pull up to a red light and rev the engine until the person next to you looks over and knows the race is on.”

  Reed was a such a guys’ guy. Ordinary without a pompous need for signs of prestige, yet fun-loving with a serious side.

  “How many speeding tickets do you have?”

  He glanced over at her, his brows raised. “Tickets? Me?”

  “Yeah, racing tickets.”

  “None so far. Don’t jinx me.”

  She smiled remembering when she
’d been a teenager looking for her first car. “I once wanted a Mustang convertible, but I wanted it more for the convertible than the racing engine.”

  “Most Mustangs are not race cars. Except for the Boss Mustang. Wow, that car has a hot engine. It can outrun a Corvette,” he said. The pitch of his voice had risen in that excited tone he used when he spoke about filming.

  “My dad would have liked you,” she said, surprised at the revelation that stunned her. “He loved muscle cars and owned a Dodge Charger.”

  “The original?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’d like to meet your dad.”

  “I’d like for you to have met him also, but he died when I was ten,” Lacey said, the hurt still a dull ache when she thought of her father.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Thinking of her father always made her a little sad. She missed him to this day. “Yeah, he died, and my mother went a little crazy. Not a good way to raise a child.”

  “That’s why your mother has had so many marriages, and you’re a relationship coach?” he said, glancing over at her.

  “Six months after he died, Mother remarried. After that, it seemed like every few years we had a new step-father along with the children he brought to the marriage.”

  “I wouldn’t have any idea about that kind of life.”

  “It’s not good for children,” Lacey said, gazing out the side window. Her mother’s voice echoed in her head that Lacey was on the path to multiple marriages, not Kerri.

  She pushed the thought away. “What else do you like, Reed Hunter? You like documentaries; you like muscle cars. What else should I know about you?”

  He grinned at her. “I’m competitive as hell. Don’t play tennis with me, unless you like to lose. I’m a card shark, and I aim to win at everything. Oh, and I like to scuba dive.”

  “Wow. You like to live on the edge.”

  Reed shrugged. “I like my life. I used to do really crazy stuff, but now I work and play hard.”

  Lacey liked Reed. She enjoyed talking to him, and he was always fun. Right now, she needed fun. “And you left out the part about how you don’t want a serious relationship.”

  “No serious relationships. Can you guarantee it won’t end in failure?” He shifted gears, and the Mustang growled onto the highway.

  “There are no guarantees in life. All you can do is make a wise choice and keep working at the relationship.” Lacey thought of Dean.

  Was she making a wise decision with him? She’d thought so up until these last few weeks, but now she wasn’t sure. And when you weren’t certain, she advised her clients to take a step back and look carefully at everything.

  “You’re never going to get serious with someone?”

  “Maybe someday, but right now, I’m having fun. I’m in it for the sex.”

  She laughed. “Spoken like an honest man.”

  “Haven’t you ever been in a relationship just for the sex?”

  Lacey thought about the relationships in her past and realized she was so picky there were very few that lasted more than three to five dates. “Nope, can’t say I have. I’m more interested in the person’s personality and whether or not I enjoy being with them.”

  He laughed. “Spoken like a woman. You should give it a try sometime.”

  “And do what? Get my heart broken because all the guy is interested in is having sex and my emotions become involved? I can’t do it.”

  What he was suggesting went against all her principles. She would never just let herself experience sex without being in a relationship.

  “No. Keep the emotions out of it. Just experience the passion,” he insisted.

  “Oh brother, now you sound like my mother.”

  “How’s that?”

  Lacey glanced over at Reed, wondering why he was so easy to talk to and why she was divulging this information to him. “It’s the word passion. She thinks all relationships are based on chemistry and passion.”

  “And yours is based on what?”

  “Mutual goals and interest. What are your relationships based on?”

  “Sex. The only mutual goal we have is for us both to reach an orgasm. I usually let her go first,” he said with a laugh.

  Lacey stared at him in surprise, realizing he was trying to rile her, but she wasn’t going to take the bait. “Well, at least you’re up front about it. It must be a real trial for you to sit through my seminars and listen to how to have a meaningful relationship.”

  He grinned. “Not really, but I am shocked at the number of people who attend.” He glanced over at her. “You don’t look like you would have a problem with passion in your life. Trouble having orgasms?”

  She felt her face flame. She could tell he enjoyed this cat and mouse game of trying to aggravate her. She smiled at him. “That is none of your business, but no, I have no problem achieving an orgasm. There is nothing wrong with me sexually. I just…” She stopped and gazed over at him. “Why am I explaining myself to you? You’re doing a documentary on me, and I don’t need this conversation repeated for everyone in America.”

  He shrugged. “Worldwide distribution, sweetheart, but this is off the record.”

  “Still, my sex life is fine. I just don’t sleep around,” she admitted.

  With a quick glance, his eyes conveyed the message men had given women since the beginning of time. “That’s a shame. I’d check out the sheets with you anytime.”

  Lacey felt an unexplained shiver of anticipation go through her. “Sorry, I’m engaged.”

  Reed sighed. “So I’ve been told. But I don’t see a ring on your finger.”

  “No, not yet. But still, I’m in a committed relationship. Besides, if that’s your ‘get me into bed’ technique, it’s a little brusque.” How long was her committed relationship going to last? Especially when Dean brought home high dollar cars they couldn’t afford.

  He glanced over and with a voice low and throaty said, “Oh, please, tell me you didn’t just say that. You’ve now thrown down the gauntlet for me to show you how competitive I really am.”

  The way he was looking at her left her breathless, her body buzzing like the low speed on a vibrator. “I take that back. I’m sure whatever technique you use works very well for you.”

  The traffic came to a complete halt, and Reed braked hard to bring them to a stop.

  “Oh no, this doesn’t look good,” he said, glancing at his watch.

  She sighed. “This could take a while.”

  He laughed. “Good. That means I can ask you more questions about your sex life.”

  “I don’t think so. My sex life is none of your business.”

  “Do you want to ask me about mine?”

  She glanced over at him; his green eyes sparkled with mischief. This guy was nuts. “No.”

  “I don’t have one right now,” he confessed.

  She arched her brows. “I find that hard to believe. I thought guys like you just went out to a bar and hooked up with someone.”

  “Hey, I’m a little pickier than that. I like to find someone I enjoy being with, who wants to have a good time, and knows this isn’t permanent.”

  “And women agree to it?” she asked, thinking how weak some women were when it came to a handsome man with a sharp mind.

  “Yeah,” he said with a smile.

  “And they go along with the fact there’s not going to be anything permanent between the two of you?” She watched the frown appear on his face. He had been doing this long enough he’d obviously learned what to expect from women.

  “Sometimes I think women think they’ll change my mind.”

  “I just bet they do.”

  “And then it gets kind of messy when I break it off with them.” His hands gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, making the rubber squeak.

  “Now I would love to hear some of those stories. I bet they are quite interesting. The female species can be vindictive when they are rejected.”

  He nodded his head
in agreement. “You can say that again. My apartment has been trashed twice. My car keyed. My mattress destroyed and several Facebook pages devoted to what a bastard I am.”

  “Ouch! I’m not surprised,” Lacey said, gazing out at the scenery. “There are very few women who can have sex with a man for long without thinking about marriage and babies. Sorry, but we’re just hard-wired that way. We may have the occasional sexual fling, but our goal is to procreate and save the species.”

  Reed gave her a long look, his gaze was like warm honey on a hot piece of bread. “That worked for the first couple of thousand years, but I don’t think that premise currently holds water.”

  “No,” she insisted. “It’s part of our DNA, just like men are hunters. You may not hunt and kill a bear for us to eat, but your basic nature is to be protective and bring home the bacon. It’s part of the reason why you’re so competitive.”

  Looking at the car in front of him, he downshifted into second gear. “This is not good.” He glanced at his watch again.

  “Are you in a hurry?”

  “My film class starts in thirty minutes.”

  “I don’t think you’re going to have time to drop me off at the office and get to your class. Would it help you if I went to the class with you?” Spending the evening watching Reed teach high school students the art of filmmaking would be interesting. Watching him deal with high school kids could be entertaining.

  Dean glanced away from the highway. “Would you mind?”

  “No. I was going to go home, feed my cat, and act like all single women.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Call my boyfriend.”

  Chapter Ten

  Lacey didn’t know what to think as she watched Reed work with the different students. They each had brought in a CD showing five minutes of filming. As the students played their CDs, Reed critiqued what they’d filmed and told them how they could have gotten a better shot with the camera.

  She sat in a corner of the room and observed how patient he was with the students and watched the respect on their faces when he praised their work.