St. Thomas...St. Thomas...Eric was good, I had to give him that. He'd brought up the most amazing vacation I'd ever had-- we'd ever had. He was using his tactics to their full potential to throw me off course and zing me from behind when I least suspected it.

Well, this time it wasn't going to work.

St. Thomas was a symbol for both of us-- for when we were utterly in love without a care on the planet. St. Thomas was perfection. Eric obviously thought if we went back there, things would be perfect. But of course they wouldn't. All that would do would make me never be able to go there again.

I continued my final plans for Eric's intervention.

I made hotel reservations for each member of this family, I contacted Janeanne and used her as my ally. She agreed immediately, said she'd known for weeks about the "thing" between Rebecca and him, and felt awful she hadn't mentioned it to me. I told her I respected her loyalty to Eric and she sighed with relief, agreeing to block out Eric's calendar for a month.

And to keep him at his office on the day of the intervention.

"Do you really feel equipped to run this, Drew?" she asked.

"Janeanne, I do. I will have a therapist there to oversee things, to make sure no one freaks out. Eric's family will be there, I'm still contacting friends. I have you and Rebecca to help with any confrontations."

"How does it work?" she asked.

"Simple. We confront him with love and respect, we express all our feelings. We talk about how his sexual dysfunction has destroyed almost all his relationships-- including ours. We are frank and even a little brutal. Then I let Eric know that we've made a reservation for him at a sexual dysfunction clinic in San Diego-- that his bags are already packed, that you've cleared his calendar...and we go. We go immediately to the clinic."

My God. Hearing it, hearing myself say the words scared the hell out of me. Hearing the truth of what we were going to do in just over a week...I wondered if Janeanne was right. Was I ready for this? Was I capable?

*****

"I don't know, JD...I really don't. I'm trying to be all strong and confident but Jesus, who am I? I'm not a God, I don't know how this works. I don't know what can happen, what Eric's capable of..."

JD had agreed to meet me for a drink and he could see I was on the verge of panic.

"What are you most afraid of, Andrew? What's the worst possible scenario?" he asked.

I thought...countless combinations came to mind but eventually, I said, "That Eric will refuse to go. That he'll say he doesn't love, that he doesn't want this to work."

"Then who better to have to help you through that. Everyone in that room loves you too, Andrew. Or they wouldn't be there. You couldn't be better protected. You couldn't be in better hands."

"I guess you're right," I said.

"And I'm a phone call away, Drew. I mean it, if you need anything at all, I'm here."

I was lucky, I'd forgotten how lucky I was to have friends like JD Clein.