Dear Anita,

I do not feel that she is overtly careless in her drinking. I have spoken to her when she has had a cocktail while at work, but we work from home in an administrative capacity, so I doubt she is alone in her day drinking at work. She does typically stay to drink at her second job at the brewery after it closes. She lives about 10-minutes away from it, so I did have her text me a few times when she would arrive home, so I knew that she was home safe. Certainly drinking and driving puts her at risk for a DUI but I get the impression that she is not overly concerned about it. We live in a rural town of about 30,000 people, so the police are likely more concerned with the meth crisis here in Appalachia.

And you may be right in your analysis, Anita. I am older than her and perhaps she would feel judged or believed I would lose whatever image she felt I had of her. In the times she did open up, I never acted in anyway less than supportive. However, based on our conversation on Tuesday night, perhaps she feared that I would react as men have before to her: With anger or the inability to have a rational conversation. Perhaps men in the past have taken advantage of her when she’s drunk and in that state of mind? I do not know.

Ryan