She, along with about half of the room, raised their hands.
Reluctantly, I did the same.
“Now, has anyone been in a relationship for longer than six months after leaving their abuser?” Rhiannon asked.
Roughly half the hands went down, mine included.
“Haley,” Rhiannon said to a girl on one of the beanbags. “What’s your boyfriend’s name again?”
“Tyler,” Haley said, chomping into a cookie.
“And how long have you and Tyler been together?”
“Almost two years now.” Squinting, Haley cocked her head to the side. After a second of silence, she laughed. “I didn’t realize it’d been that long.”
Rhiannon propped her chin in her hand, elbow on the arm rest of the sofa. “Where do you see your relationship going at this point?”
“We’re talking about moving in together soon,” she said. “Not gonna lie though, that freaks me the hell out. I told him I can’t yet. Not until I have a decent enough nest egg to fall back on if something goes wrong.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Rhiannon said. “It’s one of the primary objectives of this place, actually. Teaching you girls the importance of independence.”
“I’ll never lose my independence again, that’s for damn sure,” Haley said.
“Anyone who wants you to isn’t someone you should have in your life. How big do you want your nest egg to be?”
“Ten grand. I’ve saved up about seven so far, but I’m not giving up my apartment until I have ten.”
“That’s a good number.” Rhiannon cozied up with a throw blanket from the back of the sofa. “If you’re thinking about moving in together, stands to reason you might be thinking about getting married again.”
Grinning, Haley plucked her cookie in half. “That does stand to reason.”
“I’m sure you’ve already thought about a prenup and all that. But I’m curious what you think of the wordinterdependence.”
Haley’s tilted head told me she didn’t know what that word meant.
I tucked myself further into the corner of the sofa.
“Interdependence is the goal of a healthy relationship,” Rhiannon explained, stifling a yawn. “By definition, it’s holding onto your identity while still supporting your partner and them supporting you. Would you say that label describes you and Tyler’s relationship?”
“Honestly, yeah.” Haley covered her mouth between nibbles on her cookie. “But I dated a couple of guys before he and I got together, post leaving. And I definitely didn’t feel that way with them.”
“Can you explain that a little bit more?”
“It just came naturally with Tyler. From the get-go, there was no drama. Sure, we had the honeymoon period, but to this day,we’ve never really fought about anything. There’s conflict from time to time, but we just work through it.”
“And it wasn’t like that with those other guys?” Rhiannon asked, chin in her hand again.
“Nah, something always came up early that told me to dip.” Haley wiped her mouth using a balled-up napkin from her lap and went to throw it away. “First guy sulked when I offered to split the check. Second one lived on bikini feeds.” She veered our way to return to her beanbag, holding a cup of water and a fresh plate of cookies. “I read a study that says men who do that literally process women like objects. It activates the same brain regions as when they look at power tools. I’m all for women posting whatever they want. I’m just not dating a guy who treats us like scenery?—”
Haley’s foot caught on the area rug at the edge of our sofa.
She dropped forward, paper cup full of water and plate of cookies flying.
Water splashed us all.
I rushed forward to help her up. “Are you okay?”
“Physically, fine.” Laughing as she took my hand, Haley shook her head. “Mentally, mortified.”
