Chapter 13
Jake
Collin and I had no other option at this point but to shut our fucking mouths. I had no idea what to think, say, or do anyway, so watching the ocean—which we flew twenty fucking hours to get to—disappear in the distance was about all I could do.
I would’ve loved to call my brother or one of the bastards who were behind this and lay waste to their asses; unfortunately, part of this fuckery was to confiscate our cell phones before we loaded up in this caravan of pathetic husbands who spent way too much money to find the spark in their marriages again.
“So, you’re facing divorce, too, eh?” the man sitting in front of me in this godforsaken, rickety bus asked.
Our transportation seemed scarily like a prison transport, minus the chains…for now.
I glanced over at Collin, who sat across the aisle from me and saw him smirk at the man. The dude was a good-looking, put-together individual, but in a few minutes, he’d be stripped out of his business suit and wearing the same mother fucking tunic I’d be forced to wear.
“What makes you think I’m facing divorce?” I questioned his probe into my personal life.
“Why else would you pay eighty thousand dollars to restore your marriage?”
I had no idea what my expression was in response to this man, but it made him glance over at Collin and then back to me to see if I’d pulled it together.
“You paid eighty thousand dollars to restore your marriage?” Collin asked with a humorous tone in his voice, leaving my mind to reel in shock at what I’d just heard.
“Yeah,” the man answered. “Eighty thousand for me and eighty thousand for my wife.”
“God in heaven,” I said with equal parts disbelief and disgust. “Why on earth would you pay that kind of money for some bizarre vacation like this?”
“Because I’ve tried everything. She doesn’t love me anymore. I lost my way in our marriage and neglected her. I tried taking her on numerous vacations to get her to fall in love with me again, but nothing has worked.”
“Hold up,” I said before pausing, trying to gather my thoughts because I was wildly confused. “So, this is the last-ditch effort? Maybe your wife just doesn’t love you anymore, and maybe the marriage is over. That isn’t only your fault.”
“Keep your voice down,” Collin said, glancing to the front of this Freddy Krueger bus. “Gustoff just looked back here.”
“Listen,” I whispered to the man, who was clearly heartbroken.
“You’re a good-looking dude, and from the amount of money you’ve thrown down on this place, it’s fair to say that you’re doing well in life financially.
I’m sorry you can’t get your wife into bed with you, or whatever, but the most important question here is this: do you feel responsible for your marriage being where it’s at right now? ”
“I do. I neglected her,” he answered.
“Fair enough,” I answered, shrugging my shoulders. “It seems my ass is planted on the seat behind you because my wife is feeling the same as yours. But shit, man, it takes two to make it and two to break it.”
“He’s right,” Collin agreed, having my back since we were all in the same boat. “My guess is you’re not the only one responsible.”
“Well, she’s made it clear that she’s done fighting for what we used to have, and I didn’t believe her until she left me. We’ve been living apart for a few months. This is all my fault,” he practically moaned while wiping tears from his eyes.
How the fuck did I wind up in this situation?
“Perhaps Gus will help you achieve that ego death, and then all will be right in your world again,” I said, entirely out of my depth in this conversation.
“It seems like you are the one who forked over a hundred and sixty thousand dollars to sit on this bus with me and my buddy here. At least you’re trying. ”
Collin spoke up and said, “I would understand if you’re taking the blame because you’ve been cheating on your wife or something, but if you’re here solely because she fell out of love with you, then I have to agree with Jakey,” he pointed at me. “It’s not all on you, my man.”
“Well, that’s how I feel,” the guy answered.
My mood had been on a steady decline since we arrived at this retreat, and homeboy in front of me was only making things worse. I was no longer in the mood to speak to this fucker or even feel the energy of his fucked-up situation.
I sighed, closed my eyes, and pinched the bridge of my nose, hoping that maybe this was just a twisted dream. That would’ve at least made sense as to why I was being taken to some unknown place on this island to kill my ego and get therapy for my childhood trauma.
“We have reached the master house. We now request that no one speak until they’ve arrived at their rooms, changed, and meet back in the great hall for further instructions,” Gustoff said when the bus came to a stop.
He clasped his hands together, smiled warmly at all of us, and nodded, “I trust that all of you are here to learn the depths of being in one union with your spouse and going back to the days when you felt the desire and primal urge to spend the rest of your lives together. These things are so easily forgotten while embarking on the tiresome and difficult paths we travel. However, you will quickly learn that there is more to life than the wealth in your bank accounts.”
I narrowed my eyes at the man. “Hey, Gustoff?” I questioned, raising my hand more to mock him than anything.
“You again,” he responded as if I were his nightmare instead of the other way around. “What is it you need?”
“I’m just curious,” I continued. “It sounds like you’re saying that we all think money is the only thing for us in life?”
“Indeed. Money and the drive to find happiness through that method of energy are the main reasons marriages waste away.”
“I’ve heard that, yes,” I decided to agree with him not to be a complete dick.
“It is good to see you already understand the beginning of the truths that shall set—”
“I just don’t understand why you’re up there preaching how money is the reason we’re losing our marriages while your cute little prison camp takes a substantial amount of that in order to train us not to depend on it for our well-being and happiness?”
“Excellent point,” Collin agreed in my assessment that this was all a big scam.
“You will learn to appreciate the reason you paid the high price of this program. When you learn that, and after sacrificing time alone with your wives, you will also understand that it was not money that ruined or saved your marriage. Money is energy. You must expel that energy from your minds and lives to achieve the proper…”
The man’s voice drifted into the background of my mind, and I glanced over at Collin, wondering how the fuck he and I were going to survive this shit.
I didn’t speak or think in this manner at all.
I was a fucking surgeon, for shit’s sake, a scientist. Everything in my world was black and white and tangible.
If my wife had a smile on her face after I took her to dinner, that meant she was happy.
If my wife was pissed that I missed John’s band recital, she wore that look on her face, too.
Suddenly, I was supposed to comprehend stupid shit like money being energy?
Money paid the bills. Money put food on the damn table.
Money was the only fucking way people could survive in any economy.
I was lucky to have more of it than ninety-nine percent of the population, but I wasn’t in love with it.
If that’s what this dumb hippie fucker was insinuating, he was wrong.
What the fuck was I doing here? I was going to chalk this up as the one prank my brother had ever pulled off, and I would take immense joy in paying him back for it.