Battling the AA

Hubby has started a new project in Philly and spent most his summer in AC'd boarding rooms, while I partied away on the French riviera. He did manage to come out for a 4-day weekend in July and it would've been perfect - if he'd only left work and stress at home! Disappointingly, he clinged to his laptop and cell phone far more than to his dearly missed wife.
On his last night, when we went out with another couple to a fancy party in Nice, he also made remarks concerning my alcohol consumption!!
Excuse me???
"Darling, all I'm saying is that you now drink far more than you eat, which is alarming. Maybe you should come back to the city a bit earlier and cleanse your body?"
I had never heard such silliness!
"Babe, you're just not used to the Euro way of drinking! It's a social thing, noone's an alcoholic here!"
He looked around the fancy, but drunk, crowd; clearly not pursuaded.

I shrugged it off. I was having the time of my life and wasn't gonna let hubby ruin it. But what he'd said kept coming up days afterwards, as I've learnt that when hubby says something - it's usually true. I reasoned; I can hold my liquer, since I've been drinking socially since I was 14, and I'm only drinking a lot now because it's summer, holiday and fun times, not beacuse I need it!!

I had only been back in NYC five days, when hubby sat down next to me in the living room one afternoon and told me he'd talked to an addictive disorders therapist.
"Oh yeah?" I said uninterestingly and kept flicking the pages of my Vogue.
"It's for you".. he said quietly.
"WHAT? Why? I don't have any issues!" I threw the magazine to the side, knocking out my martini.
We both stared in silence at my drink on the floor, being sucked up by the persian carpet, without either making an attempt to stop it.

So now, after several failed attempts to cry my way out of this and making promises, I've agreed with my worried and caring hubby to do counselling thrice a week. Hubby's only working in the city this week and obviously can't control what I drink or don't drink, but just seeing his worried eyes makes me feel guilty enough to admit.
I don't mind seeing a shrink, but to chat about my so called 'alcohol problem' three times a week with some AA sect leader is not my thing! This is a guy that likes repeating his mantra "the first step is admitting you have a problem".
Well, it won't happen, so we might as well talk about Stella McCartney's latest launch. (Him: "Stella who"? Nevermind.)

Ok Ok, I'm not blind to the truth, I know I enjoy a drink every now and then, but I don't drink more than the average person!? And even if I drank morning, noon, night all summer, I can obviously control it since I've cut down remarkably. Nowadays I only have one drink before dinner and then wine for dinner.
"What do you mean 'how many glasses'? A decent amount! No, I don't drink bottles". Sigh.

"It's also worrying that you know every ingredient for every drink on the planet, without ever having worked behind a bar", the annoying AA guy said on our first session today.
" Well, isn't it better I know what I'm drinking? I'm not some alley alcie downing nail polish remover!"

And then he moves on to drugs. Sigh. Might as well be honest.
"I did ecstacy when I was a kid, just a few times, but I'm not all techno, so it wasn't for me. Coke occasions I can count on one hand, I just hallucinate, when I'd rather just have a buzz, and I didn't lose weight either! How's that for false marketing? And in my teens I realized pot makes you ugly, so that's out of the question".

"How about prescribed drugs?" he said and tilted his head á la shrink.
Damn, how could I not have seen that one coming? Turns out hubby had found my stash of valium, prozac, xanex etc. and told on me.
"I object, that doesn't count! If they're prescribed I obviously need them, so it's not drugs per say!"

Ugh. This was only session One. God, I need a drink, and after this ordeal I deserve it.