Big Bad by Whitney Collins

Author:Whitney Collins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sarabande Books
Published: 2021-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

STONE FRUIT

ON THE FIRST night of the couple’s retreat, Marta was instructed to whip Dean with a silk ribbon while she scolded him for his transgressions. Dean got down on all fours on the olive-green carpet of the Forgiveness Hall and smiled like a Labrador. He liked attention of any kind.

“Bad, Dean, bad,” Marta said, monotone. “Shame on you for …” Marta paused and searched for something benign to accuse him of, something other than the drinking or the chapter of their relationship Dean referred to as “The Bad Idea” and Marta referred to as “Mackenzie.” Marta gave the ribbon an apathetic flick. “Shame on you for leaving the toilet seat up.”

Dean feigned remorse and hung his head like a shamed dog. Ventura, their assigned Love Coach, raked his fingers through his short red beard, dissatisfied.

“Try to be emotionally specific, Marta,” Ventura said. “For example, when Dean leaves the toilet seat up, how does it make you feel inside?”

Marta twirled the ribbon as if stirring a pot. She wanted to say, It makes me feel like I need to be less of who I am and more of who I’m not, but instead, she said: “It makes me feel like I have to put it down again.”

Dean snickered into his sleeve. He was wearing a new flannel shirt, as well as new hiking boots, both of which he’d bought especially for the retreat. “Everyone will know I mean business,” he’d explained when he brought them home. “This get-up says, ‘that guy is ready to explore the wilderness of love.’”

Marta let her shoulders sag and the ribbon fall. It coiled at her feet like a passive, pink worm. “Tell you what,” Ventura said. “Let’s take a five-minute break. You know: inhale, exhale? Regroup, reconvene?”

Dean sat back on his haunches. Marta stared blankly past the two men, out the window and beyond the front meadow of the retreat to the remote-control airfield across the road. Earlier that day on the way to Forever Together Couples’ Retreat, Marta and Dean had passed the abbreviated runway, where a crowd gathered for the takeoff of a model Virgin Airways jet. Dean, delighted, pulled onto the shoulder to stand and watch, while Marta stayed in the car. She sat in the passenger seat with her arms folded across her chest and stared out the windshield to make it look like she wasn’t interested. If Dean thought she was interested, he’d think she was happy, and if he thought she was happy, he’d think his work here was done.

Outside the station wagon, the miniature jet buzzed up and away. Dean hooted in boyish approval. Marta sat and considered the lone wing of a dragonfly they’d hit somewhere in the middle of Indiana. It was stuck to the glass with its own green blood, but still flapped in the wind, frantic, like it had a shot at getting where it needed to be. Marta knew if she was too cold, Dean would find another Mackenzie, but if she

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