Read Fix You for Free Online Page B

Splitsville.”
                  “My money was on Walt and Gwen,” Jo said with a sideways non-smile.
                  “I was betting on Jordan.”
                  The Pinot was inexpensive grocery store stuff, but it was crisp and went down warm. Jess realized she hadn’t been eating anything but scant handfuls of saltines and the occasional half a peanut butter sandwich. Wine was exactly what she’d needed and not been conscious enough to admit. Her stomach growled.
                  “There were signs,” she said as she lowered her glass and trailed her fingers down the delicate stem. “He wasn’t affectionate anymore and I didn’t press him about it. I’m cold that way. We’d go months at a time without sex and even then it was…unenthusiastic.”
                  “The honeymoon fades,” Jo said. “All couples cut back on sex, it doesn’t mean - ”
                  “All?” Jess lifted her brows in question. “Even you and Tam?”
                  Jo chewed at her lower lip.
                  “Or do you guys still go at it like rabbits?”
                  “Well…I mean…that’s just because…”
                  “You enjoy each other.” She took another sip of wine. “Your husband likes screwing you.” More wine. “My husband doesn’t like screwing me.”
                  “We haven’t been married as long as you and Dylan have…were.” Jo dug her spoon into her ice cream and dropped her eyes away.
                  “That doesn’t matter – when you tell someone forever, ten years is nothing. Ten years is bullshit.”
                  “Jess…”
                  “You know the worst part of it all? I mean, aside from Tyler having two Christmases the rest of his life.” She ran her fingertip around the rim of her glass. The Waterford stemware had been a wedding gift. “I hate being one of those women.”
                  “What women?”
                  “Those poor unsuspecting bitches whose husbands cheat on them. I don’t want to be a victim, Jo. ‘Oh, poor Jess, she let herself go and Dylan had to turn somewhere else.’”
                  Jo snorted. “No one is saying that, trust me.”
                  “But I got cheated on ,” she protested. “ I am one of them.”
                  “Getting cheated on doesn’t make you a victim,” Jo countered. “It’s how you handle the cheating that counts.”
                  Jess rolled her eyes.
                  “It’s one week later and you’ve lawyered up and kicked him out and you are not a victim, Jess. You are the toughest chick I know.”
                  She reached for her wine yet again, blinking hard. A thick lock of hair slid from behind her ear and she let it hang, hoping it would hide the shine in her eyes. “Tough, yeah. That’s why he’s with her ; she’s submissive. Makes him feel like a man.”
                  “Jessica.” Jo’s voice had become so stern that Jess had to meet her gaze. Tiny as she was, she’d bowed up in her chair, eyes big and fierce, spoon brandished like a weapon. “If a man – if any man – needs beautiful, smart, responsible you to let him treat you like shit so he can feel like a man , then he’s the biggest pussy in the world, and I know my sister wouldn’t look backward a second for a guy like that.”
                  Typical tomboy Jo thought she could bulldoze her way through situations; always ready to slap labels on people and call names. She was still such a child when it came to understanding some of the intricacies of adult relationships and the emotional trappings that came with them. Two weeks before, Jess would have dismissed her with a wave.
                  But