by Mary Monroe
“My budget estimate for the next shoot,” Eric began as soon as Teri returned to her desk and composed herself.
“Yes, uh, do you mind if I take this call before we get started?” she asked, already reaching for her telephone. Before Eric could respond and before she could pick up her line, the red light stopped blinking. “Harrison?” she said, hearing only a dial tone. She hung up and looked at Eric with a smile. “I guess it wasn’t that important if he couldn’t wait.”
“I guess it wasn’t,” he agreed with a shrug. He cleared his throat and removed his paperwork from his battered briefcase.
CHAPTER 29
Unlike some of Carla Andrews’s other patients, who didn’t care one way or the other, Harrison Starr didn’t want anybody to know that he was seeing her on a professional basis, too. A big, strong, strapping brother like him would never admit to his homeboys that he had problems he couldn’t deal with on his own.
He recalled his uncle Ed who had had an emotional breakdown when his wife Vera left him for another man. Instead of getting the professional help he needed, he’d turned to his church. It had been ten years since Uncle Ed’s breakdown and so far nothing Reverend Spencer had told him had done any good. He was as depressed as ever. And what good did it do to just talk to a preacher? Most of the old people that Harrison knew were just as qualified to offer as much psychological advice as any preacher he knew. Some even more so. Ninety-five-year-old Aunt Bessie, still living on her own, could put Dr. Phil to shame.
The last time he did try to get some useful advice from Reverend Spencer was a couple of years ago when he thought he was going to lose his job due to budget cuts. All the good preacher did for him was tell him to go home and read his Bible and drink some hot toddy or some tea. Aunt Bessie had not even been able to pull him out of the doldrums that time, either. A few sessions with Carla had done him a world of good. Her advice gave him more confidence and the initiative he needed to take care of his business. Even though he’d sent his resume to other broadcasting institutions, he prepared himself for the worst. He had even obtained the address of the nearest unemployment office. Fortunately for him, everything regarding his job eventually worked out in his favor. He refused to talk to anybody but a professional these days. What if he needed some type of medication for the rare times he experienced depression? Other than suggesting a hot toddy or some warm tea, preachers and old sisters couldn’t help him. Besides, Carla was so much easier to deal with.
“Well, are you going to talk or do you plan to spend the entire session wearing out my new carpet?” Carla asked. She leaned back in her chair as Harrison paced back and forth in front of her desk like a panther. He had been in her office for ten minutes and this was as far as he’d gotten.
“I’m trying to get my thoughts together,” he explained. He plopped down hard in the chair facing Carla. Behind the chair he occupied was a black vinyl couch that was available if a patient wanted to stretch out during or throughout his or her session. It was rarely used. As a matter of fact, it was used more as a trampoline by Carla’s kids than it was for anything else. For some reason, Carla’s patients seemed to prefer to sit in the chair and face her, pace back and forth, look out the back window, or all three.
“I feel like a punk coming to talk to you after so long. After things got straightened out at work that time, I didn’t think I’d ever need to talk to you again,” Harrison said, looking embarrassed. “Especially not about…a damn woman.”
Carla looked so regal and wise sitting with her arms folded across her chest. He never knew what to expect from her. “A damn woman that you happen to be hopelessly in love with.” That was not exactly what he wanted to hear, but she was the psychiatrist.
“I don’t know about being ‘hopelessly in love’ with her, or anybody else for that matter,” Harrison replied, his hand held up in a defensive gesture. “I’ve been with a lot of women. I know a lot of women. Beautiful, successful women! I could pick up the telephone right now and call any one of them and they’d be glad to hear from me.”
“Every one of them except Teri Stewart,” Carla said with a shrug. Oh, this sister was enjoying every moment of this! It was times like this when she almost wished she didn’t have psychic abilities. She already knew how the situation between Teri and Harrison was going to play out.
Harrison shot Carla a sharp look. “The last time I called her up, she brushed me off like I was a piece of lint! She had Nicole put me on hold, and she never did come to the phone.” He didn’t even attempt to hide the bitterness in his voice.
“How long did you wait?”
“I waited long enough, that’s how long I waited. Like I said, I know a lot of other women. I don’t have to run after one…”
“I know you don’t. But if you want to be with the woman you love, or think you love, you have to put forth some effort. Securing a relationship takes a lot of effort. You have to let her know you want her.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do! I’ve been trying to get back with her for weeks. You saw how hard I tried at your party. What do I have to do to make her see that?”
“Well, for one thing, you can stop taking other women home with you right up under Teri’s nose.”
Harrison gasped so hard he started to choke on some air. Carla quickly leaned across her desk and slapped him rapidly on his back; he had to do some deep coughing to clear his windpipe. After he’d composed himself, he looked at Carla like she had slapped his face, too. “You…how…Teri knows about that?” A confused look crossed his face. “That was nothing,” he insisted. “There was nothing to that.”
“That’s not what it looked like.”
“No, I am serious. Nothing happened. I didn’t do anything with Mia. I mean, we kissed a few times before we left your party, but that was all.”
“Where did you go after you left my party?”
Harrison looked even more confused. For a moment, to Carla it looked like he couldn’t or didn’t want to answer her question.
“My place.” He held up his hands. “But nothing happened.”
“Why did you take her to your place? What did you expect from her? I know Mia well enough to know that she doesn’t follow a man home from a party to watch a movie on the Lifetime channel.”
“I did not fuck that woman, but I wanted to. I am not going to lie about that,” Harrison admitted, scratching the side of his cheek. “But I didn’t.”
He didn’t know that Carla was psychic and she didn’t want him to know. That was the only reason she didn’t tell him that she knew he had not slept with Mia.
“Hmm,” Carla replied, looking at him from the corner of her eye.
“Look, whatever I planned to do with Mia was only for recreation.”
“Did Mia know that?”
Harrison twiddled his thumbs. “Carla, I don’t want to spend my session talking about Mia. That woman didn’t mean a damn thing to me that night, and she never will. Yes, I paid her some attention at your party, she made sure of that. Yes, I took her home. Teri had made it clear that she was not interested in going home, or anywhere else, with me. And I had been drinking…”
“Harrison, how do you think Teri felt when she saw you leave my house with a known slut like Mia?”
“I wouldn’t know. She didn’t tell me. As a matter of fact, I haven’t spoken to Teri since your party. I tried to, but like I told you, she didn’t take my call.” Harrison gave Carla a guarded look. “I think she thinks I’m playing games with her feelings.”
Carla nodded. “I can see why.”
“Excuse me?”
“Teri Stewart is nobody’s fool. She is one of the most level-headed women I know and she’s not one to make foolish choices. You know her well enough to know that. She’s been through a lot for a woman her age. Not only did she lose her parents at a young age, but now she’s in a position where she’s assumed a similar role herself.”
“Where are you going with this?”
“I kno
w your relationship with Teri didn’t last that long, but did you meet her grandparents?”
“I did. We spent our first Sunday together in church with them and later that same day we had dinner at Roscoe’s House of Chicken ’n Waffles, one of her favorite restaurants. I’ve never been to the elder Stewarts’ home, though.”
“Did you notice how she interacted with them? They took care of her when she needed it, now she’s taking care of them. Emotionally at least. And from what I can see, she’s doing a damn good job. Here is a sister not even thirty yet. She’s got a job that most people twice her age couldn’t land, or handle. She’s got herself together in every other area. The fact that she has not been in a relationship for several months now says a lot about her. She’s not one to jump into anything too quickly. And if she does, she jumps out in time to avoid too much conflict. From what you’ve told me, Teri is not going out of her way to resume her relationship with you. She must have given it a lot of thought. Maybe she feels that she’s better off without you in her life.”
“That’s the way it looks to me, too. And maybe I should forget about her,” Harrison said, raising his voice. He was beginning to feel hot under the collar. “She’s not doing a damn thing to help restore our relationship.”
“But she still interests you anyway? Have you considered the fact that since things have not worked in your favor so far, you should move on?”
“That’s my next move, I guess.” Harrison looked at his fingers, then twiddled them again for a few moments before he looked back up at Carla. “I’ve run into her several times since our breakup. That party on New Year’s Eve at the rapper’s house. Your party. And even before that. It seemed like no matter where I went, there she was.”
“How did she react when she saw you those other times?”
“She didn’t.”
“Excuse me?”
“If she even saw me, she didn’t let me know. And each time I was with somebody else.”
“Well, under those circumstances, how else could she react to seeing you?”
Harrison held up both hands again and waved them above his head in surrender. “You got me! I can’t argue with you because I know I can’t win.” There was a weak smile on his lips.
“Harrison, why are you here?” Carla asked, making a sweeping gesture with her hand. She paused and dipped her head, eyeing Harrison in a way that made him nervous, something most women couldn’t do.
“I needed to talk to somebody,” he said with a shrug. “I couldn’t think of a better person than you.” He leaned back in his seat and winked at her. “And since I can’t afford Dr. Phil…” Harrison sucked in his breath and got serious. “I always feel better after I talk with you. Maybe you should change your name to Dr. Feel-good.” He laughed sharply. Carla’s face remained straight. She did not see any humor in his comment.
“Maybe I will,” she told him as she rose and looked at her watch, indicating that the session was over.
One thing that Carla Andrews would never have to worry about was running out of business. The truth of the matter was, she had been referring potential clients to some of her colleagues. She laughed to herself every time she thought about all the times her parents had told her she was “crazy” for considering a career as a psychiatrist. “Black folks ain’t crazy—they don’t need that kind of mess,” she had been told. Not just by her parents, but by others as well. But she had made up her mind years before she’d ever told anybody what she wanted to do. It pleased her to know that half of her clients were not black. The brassy blond woman who had stumbled in before Harrison had admitted to her that she felt more comfortable sharing her feelings with a black person. She’d been raised by a black nanny and according to her, “black folks are naturally more insightful than white folks.” Carla didn’t agree or disagree with that assessment, but she had more than a little confidence in her abilities. The fact that her clients kept coming back said a lot about her.
After Harrison’s departure just after one P.M., three more sad sacks shuffled in.
CHAPTER 30
“My annual pap test last week is the closest I’ve come to having sex in a whole year.”
Teri’s words didn’t surprise Carla. Nothing she said did anymore. “And that’s a damn shame. It’s been a whole year now since your breakup with Harrison, right?” Carla said in a gentle voice.
Teri nodded. “A year and three days actually.”
“So, other than your gynecologist, no man has touched you in more than a year?”
“Not unless I can count the hugs I get from Grandpa Stewart and Reverend Upshaw on a regular basis…” Teri didn’t have a problem being so frank with Carla. She felt comfortable sharing information with her that she couldn’t even share with Nicole. However, she didn’t like the fact that Carla had a notepad in her hand and was busy scribbling something after every comment she made.
“So how does that make you feel?”
“I’m horny as hell, and if I don’t get some soon, I won’t be responsible for my actions,” Teri admitted with a weary look on her face.
“Well, you can always invest in a few sturdy sex toys.” One thing that Carla’s patients liked about her was her sense of humor. But Teri did not find Carla’s bold suggestion the least bit amusing.
“Yeah. I just might do that,” she snapped, clearing her throat and looking away from Carla. She was too embarrassed to tell Carla that she’d already worn out a couple of vibrators. But Teri had a feeling that Carla already knew that. Especially after the conspiratorial look Carla gave her after the sex toys comment. This was one of the few times that Teri wished she didn’t know about Carla’s psychic abilities. She was so embarrassed her face felt as if somebody had stuck a match to it.
While Carla paused to write on her pad, Teri rose, stretched, and strolled to the large wall-to-wall back window. She parted the ivory-colored blinds and shaded her eyes with her hand. The early June sun was almost as bright and warm as it would be by the middle of August. Even with her eyes shaded, Teri still had to squint to see the backyard that the Andrews were so proud of. The kidney-shaped pool was still covered. Some of the lawn furniture was also still covered, but Pepe—the eager and thorough young Salvadoran who did landscaping chores on the Andrewses’ property—was busy mowing the lawn.
“You haven’t talked about work in a while. I assume that’s because everything is going well there,” Carla commented, talking with her back to Teri. Teri sniffed and returned to her seat, glad to see that Carla had stopped taking notes.
“It’s a job,” Teri said with a heavy sigh. “I’m working on a new album project right now.” She paused and gave Carla a thoughtful look. “I am worried about the recording session scheduled for tonight. These artists are difficult.”
“What artist isn’t difficult?”
“I’m waiting to hear if we’ve booked the right group they want to use to do backups on a couple of songs and the right models for the publicity photos. You know, almost every male artist—and a few of the females—want to fuck me at some point in the relationship.”
Carla drew in her breath, then scribbled furiously. “Oh? And how do you feel about that?”
“It’s kind of difficult to tell you this, but my first year at Eclectic, I spent more time fucking than a porn star. I am happy to say that that got old real fast.” Teri shuddered just recalling her wild youth.
“When did you stop enjoying sex? Being abstinent more than a year is a long time for a woman like you.”
“A woman like me?” Teri gasped and looked at Carla with her eyes stretched wide open. “What do you mean by that?”
“Calm down,” Carla suggested, holding up a hand. “You’re young, you’re beautiful, and you work in an industry that oozes sex. I’ve known you long enough to know that you are a sensuous woman. Well, you used to be.” Carla picked up her pen again and started tapping the top of her desk.
“I’m still a sensuous woman,” Teri said, her voice faltering. “I just
got tired of jumping in and out of bed with the wrong men. Dwight’s got too much action going on in his life. I know I could never resume my relationship with him. And I feel sorry for any woman who thinks she can tame a professional athlete. Especially one as popular as Dwight.”
“What about some of the single men you work with?”
“Ssssss!” Teri hissed, waving her hand as though she were shooing a fly. “Most of them are in the same boat with Dwight. The only single man that I work with who is worth his jockstrap is Eric. But our relationship is strictly professional. Not only is he a fantastic photographer, I am sure you’ll agree, but he’s also a great guy. I enjoy working with him, but that’s all.” Teri paused and rubbed the tip of her nose. “Besides, Nicole’s had her hungry eye on him and from what I’ve seen so far, he’s been eyeballing her, too.”
“What about Harrison?”
“In a perfect world, he’d be perfect for me,” Teri said with a dry laugh. “I don’t know what he thinks, though.”
Carla gave Teri a mysterious look, wondering what she would say if she told her how important she was to Harrison.
“Tell me the one thing you think contributed the most to your breakup with Harrison.”
“The fact that he was, and probably still is, so fucking high maintenance. And he had the nerve to tell me that I was high maintenance.” Teri chuckled. A somber look swept across her face like a veil. “Men like him need a woman around twenty-four seven. Like a mama or something.”
“That’s because when it comes to the opposite sex, men will be boys. And baby boys at that. They need to be taken care of. And as far as they are concerned, that’s what their women are for. First their mama, their sisters, and any other females in the family. Then as soon as they come of age, their needs become the responsibility of the girlfriends, wives, and mistresses. It’s been that way from the dawn of time. I laugh when people say that prostitution is the world’s oldest profession. The world’s oldest profession is just being a woman. Our work is never done.”