When the Dodge vanished from my view, I doubled back to find Cherise loitering on the sidewalk. One hand was shielding her eyes from the bright noon sun. The concern in her face only enhanced her beauty. My khakis got even more restrictive in certain areas.
"Why are you all the way over there, Mr. Graham?” she yelled at me as I reached the halfway mark to her. “What's going on?"
My first instinct was to tell her the truth. If a pissed off ex or looney stalker had traced her here, she should be informed. I couldn’t be sure what the Sunday driver was up to, though. Causing her to worry needlessly wasn’t necessary right now. A good lie that couldn't be disputed was in order.
"I thought I spotted someone I hadn't seen in a long time driving by. I ran over to the street to get a better look, but they went by too fast. Why did you come out?" As far as I was concerned, it wasn’t safe for her to be out in the open yet. I’d notify her of that when it was time.
She shifted all her weight to one emerald green heel. "I was looking for you. It's three minutes past one. You're never late for appointments." That was because I was usually here on reconnaissance.
Yep, keeping that to myself.
It was humbling that she came looking for me. I ambled up on the sidewalk next to her, using my discretion to take in the dress cupping her hour-glass frame. Geometric shapes of different shades on a green background framed her collar like a necklace, accentuating the curves of her breasts beneath the designs and the bare skin above. My mouth watered to taste, tease, then test the suppleness of her breasts and skin with my tongue. Knowing how that would turn out, I digested the extra saliva and kept my tongue to myself.
"Mr. Graham," Cherise summoned me out of my gutter thoughts.
"Yes." To whatever she wanted.
Down, boy.
Her concern deepened, the soft slope of her forehead wrinkling. "Do you need to cancel your appointment and go catch your friend?"
What? Hell no! That was no friend of mine, I shouted in my mind.
"No," came out my mouth. "It was someone I really wanted to talk to, but not a friend ever." That wasn't a lie, at least. I didn't even know if it was a man or woman lurking.
Cherise’s expression morphed to a sexy pout. "If it's important to you, we can make up the time missed today, tomorrow."
As if I'd miss a date with her. I meant miss a day with her. Technically, it was an hour. An hour with her was the highlight of all my days. No way was I skipping those sixty minutes for any reason. Unless whoever she was running from showed up. Until then, my time was all hers.
Aiming to demonstrate that, I reached past Cherise to open the door for her. "I'm here. You're here. Let's do the work, Dr. Johnston. The other stuff can wait."
"That's the right attitude to have when it comes to your future career, Mr. Graham." With a wide smile that I put on her mouth, she graced the waiting area with her presence.
It was no hardship for me to tag along in the back of her. I was going to Hell for gaping at her ass that had to be sculpted by a Goddess. Who else could know how the sway of rounded flesh in thin cotton would entice a man to commit bad acts? That ass was a woman’s doing specifically to bring on a man’s ruin. Ruin me, please. In the meantime, I tore my eyes away from her to watch where I was going.
Miss Clark, dressed in black from head to toe, as usual, greeted me with a shy wave. Eclectic silver rings adorned each of her fingers. There was a new ring in her nose. That had to hurt something horrible. Most businesses wouldn't have hired her for her choice of style alone. Fucking snobs. It was good to know Cherise didn't practice bigotry along with psychiatry.
Miss Clark side-eyed Cherise approaching. "Dr. Johnston thought you had let her down today, Mr. Graham. I told her you'd get yourself a real girlfriend to talk to one day. That would be way cheaper for you than coming here."
“If he stops coming, I won’t need you, Athena,” Cherise advised her with an attitudinal tip of her brow. A curtain of curls bounced around her back. My fingers cramped to touch just one. However, Andre said a black woman’s hair was out of bounds. He would know. I yielded to his superior knowledge on the subject. There was one subject I did know a hell of a lot about; the female’s ability to drain a man’s wallet dry.
The receptionist obviously didn't date women. If she did, she'd know how false her statement of it being cheaper to date was. Somebody should enlighten her. I hoped I was the only one here qualified to do it. Cherise veered toward her office. I made a stand at the side of the reception desk, where I'd conversed with Miss Clark numerous times as she took my copayment after each sitting with the doc. I liked to think we had developed a rapport strong enough to share information.
I was about to find out. "Dating women is not that much cheaper than therapy, Miss. Clark. This is New York, after all, where everything is overpriced for the hell of it. There are too many people willing to pay any price for anything for it to ever be cheap here."
She cackled dryly. "I've only been living in New York for twenty years, so thank you for telling me that, Mr. Graham. I try to learn something new every day."
I’d have said more, but the sensation of eyes drilling into the back of my skull had been invoked. There was only one person who could be behind me. I glanced backward. Sure enough, Cherise had come back. She was no longer smiling and seemed a bit perturbed with me. Figuring Cherise was over my holding up our session, her receptionist was about to get the quickest goodbye known to man.
"Gotta go, Miss Clark." I twirled in the direction of the doc’s domain, where she stood like a menacing, fun-sized guard. "Come along, Dr. Johnston. Time's a-wasting."
"Seriously?" she gasped, closing us in her office fragranced by the flowers from her parents. "I've been waiting for you all day."
I longed for her to mean that in a totally different way as I took my spot on the couch. "Really? Did we have an appointment today? I do apologize for holding up progress if we did."
"Mmmm,” exited her lovely throat condescendingly as she bore down on her desk. The sashay of her hips could drive a man insane and make him see better all at the same time. "Go ahead and keep playing crazy with me, Mr. Graham. You're in the right place for it. I can commit you to another place for the insane, for seventy-two hours if you like."
Oh damn.
"I would not like,” I divulged real fast. “How about I don't be late or tell the receptionist things she needs to know while on your time?"
"Now, you're talking." She peeked back to wink at me.
"You’re kind of mean, you know that?" And I loved it. Something was definitely screwed up with my mental functioning.
Cherise
Calming the thrill that ripped up my spine every time his stormy grays set down on it, I activated the timer on my watch. “I have to be strict with my patients, Mr. Graham. You guys will walk all over me if I’m not. Malaysia doing it to me is bad enough.”
Taking my place in the armchair, I crossed my legs. Mr. Graham suddenly looked away and uneasy, fidgeting in his seat.
That made me uneasy. “You okay, Mr. Graham? Something else we need to talk about before we get started with your high school years?” Getting to know every part of his development into the man he was, was rewarding, and had its setbacks. I was taking on his pain and grief for his brother with no outlet for it due to patient/doctor confidentiality. It tormented me at home as much as being here in his company did. At weird moments, sometimes it was as if he never left me after we were done for the day. During other strange moments throughout our time apart, I swore I felt him close by. So strange.
“Nope, there’s nothing else to talk about, Dr. Johnston. I’m fine. Where did I stop at yesterday?”
I could tell he was lying through his teeth—nobody grew uncomfortable for no reason. “You stopped with the teenager from your class bullying Greg when he was in middle school. Something happened with the prosecution for your brother’s murder?” Bringing up the ongoing case was a wild guess on my end to find out wh
at triggered his remoteness.
Mr. Graham grimaced, refusing to make eye contact again. “Nope. Nothing new there. Killer still in Rikers. I’m good.”
His clipped sentences were a clue to ‘back off,’ so I would for now. “When you feel like talking about whatever it is, I’m here.”
He mumbled, “It’s not something we’ll ever talk about.” My ‘leaving it alone for now’ expired with that statement.
“So, something is wrong?”
He stretched his arms along the back of the chair, setting off panty-wetting muscle play under his long sleeves. “No, nothing’s wrong. It’s just not something we can talk about.”
I didn’t like him holding anything back from me, either. “This is a free, nonjudgmental space, Mr. Graham. Nothing is out of bounds. If it’s a woman that’s causing you to clam up around me, I’m fine with discussing that part of your life too.” I really wasn’t fine with it, but my slowly-growing business would make damn sure I got over it.
He situated one loafer-clad foot on the opposite knee. “Don’t have a woman outside of you in my life. Don’t have the time for others. Nothing to discuss there. Can we talk about Greg now?”
Out of all he said, ‘don’t have a woman outside of you’ stuck with me. My mind replayed it like a broken record. Parts of me tightened and pulsed. Stupid, stupid body was having unprofessional reactions. Now, I was the one squirming.
I had to get my head onto something else. “Alright. let’s pick up where we left off after I ask you this.”
“Nope, didn’t make it to the carnival last night either,” he rebutted before I posed the question. He was never going to water down his pain and grief with joy at this rate.
“Why haven’t you gone yet? It’s imperative to your journey, and it’ll do you a lot of good,” I assured him.
“I had some other stuff to take care of,” he expressed to the window that was far more interesting to him now than it had been in the past.
I observed him closely. “That’s been your excuse every day this week. If there’s no woman in your life besides me, what are you doing that’s so important in the evenings?” I shouldn’t have a personal stake in knowing. That I did would be taken to my grave.
He writhed some more on the couch, changing positions twice. I didn’t think I’d ever seen him this off before today. It was quite enthralling to know he wasn’t as reserved as he came across sometimes. His life story was always told in a dead tone as if he wasn’t a part of his own life. Thirty seconds later, he hadn’t uttered a word. Whatever was affecting him right now had to be big. Or, he hadn’t come up with an explanation that he thought would get me off his back. We weren’t going to get anything done just sitting here while he dodged my digs into his world neither.
I would have to let him off the hook. “Let’s shelve why you haven’t done the assigned work to get in the FBI for the time being. We’ll come back to it at the end of therapy. Continue to tell me about Greg’s bully.”
Mr. Graham’s uneasiness didn’t subside. His posture was rigid and defensive. He did begin sharing the part of Greg’s life that had negative effects on them both, so that was progress. I would still be wondering about the thing he wouldn’t share with me when time ran out fifty-three minutes later.
Cherise
A low voltage tickling on my wrist signaled to bring the session to a close. Mr. Graham’s eyes hadn’t budged away from the window the entire period. He’d found a way to shut me out while talking to me. I didn’t like it. The feeling of losing him somehow manifested and wouldn’t go away. At this point, I had the blues and wanted someone’s ear to sing them in.
“That’s enough for today, Mr. Graham. I will repeat that you should begin working on completing the assignment I gave you Monday. You’ll run out of time next weekend when the carnival’s gone. I also wanted to say if you’d changed your mind about sharing what made you distant in less than a minute after coming in here, we can talk about it off the clock.”
A tiny part of me thought his mood swing had something to do with me. No one else was around when it shifted. No calls had come in or gone out. Whatever brought on the cold shoulder he was giving me, I couldn’t fix it if he wouldn’t confess it. And I sure as hell didn’t like him acting as if I wasn’t in the room. It was rude… and hurtful if I wanted to be completely honest with myself.
Getting to his feet, he finally switched his visual devotion from the window to me. “No, I’m good, and I’ll get that assignment done before next weekend. Promise.”
Believing nothing would make him open up today, I got up oddly tired. “I’ll walk you out.” A craving for home, a glass of Chardonnay, and a lazy few hours alone descended on me. There was no reason to ignore it. I had no other appointments today.
Mr. Graham headed out first. I gave myself five seconds to commit career-suicide and stare after him wistfully, longingly. Usually, he dropped by reception to make another appointment for tomorrow. I had every reason to think he’d do otherwise, but I couldn’t be sure. Lingering at my desk, I eavesdropped to see if he’d break routine and not schedule a slot for tomorrow. He wasn’t himself today. Neither was I, who didn’t want to be here any longer.
He opened the office door without looking back. A delicious aroma and quiet chatter from Mr. Graham and Athena drifted in. I lifted my nose in the air like a bloodhound. My empty stomach picked that moment to grumble for sustenance. Assuming he was scheduling for tomorrow, I broke my routine by slinging my writing material on the desk instead of inside of it. Next, I slung my purse over my shoulder to shut down the office early.
Mr. Graham’s back was to me as I crossed into the waiting area. Athena was likely eating at her desk, expecting to not get off for another hour or two. She’d be pleased to learn otherwise. Deliberating on getting takeout for Malaysia’s and my dinner, I crept up beside Mr. Graham at Athena’s desk. The thick, cool indifference wafting off him was barely breathable. In front of him was an opened tray of half-eaten food near the keyboard Athena was typing on. Despite the atmosphere, my stomach grumbled louder. Jeez, why didn’t she order me something too?
“Pack up when you’re done with Mr. Graham, Athena,” I instructed. “We’re going home early. Meet me in the car.”
“Wait, Dr. Johnston.” Athena popped up like a jack in the box, reaching for a carryout bag on the far end of her desktop. “Your food order was delivered from Olive Garden while you were in session. Thanks for the fettuccine alfredo. I was starving, and you have another appointment for Monday at ten.” She wasn’t the only one starving.
I moaned, “There is a God.” Making grabby fingers for the bag, I perked up at the good news of more business and food. Food that I didn’t order. I snatched my fingers back. “Hold on. I didn’t call out for food.”
She stiffened, eying the bag between her palms as if it contained something deadly. “You didn’t order this?”
“No,” I deadpanned. That meant the food was a gift, an unwanted one. Having had enough of those for a lifetime, I became suspicious. “Who dropped it off?”
Mr. Graham’s head was swinging back and forth like a pendulum, following the conversation. I be damned if I wasn’t glad he was here. In no way did I want to deal with this by myself contrary to what I had expressed to him. He didn’t have to get involved to be a comfort. Just him being here was enough to make this situation not so horrible.
Anxiety had taken over Athena’s baby-smooth face. “The same guy that dropped off a bottle of expensive wine with a red bow on it and a tiny envelope with a card that’s under my desk for you too.”
That was all I needed to hear. The bow and note was definitely Chad Lowell’s modus operandi. At that stage, my expression mirrored Athena’s. There were no doubts that he had found me and Athena too. Maybe keeping the things happening in my personal life away from the professional side might’ve been a not so good thing. She didn’t know what dangerous individual to be on the lookout for. What if he tampered with the food to get
back at me for vanishing?
Just in case he did, I took out my phone to dial for an ambulance. “Athena, get the wine from underneath your desk with as less fingers as possible.”
Mr. Graham stopped swiveling his head like he was at a tennis match, grasping my dialing finger before I could tap the nine. “Wait, Dr. Johnston before you call. Let Miss Clark tell us exactly what happened.”
She dropped the sack, wine, and note on the desk like it was hot then blurted, “A blond and salt peppered guy that didn’t look like a delivery guy in a plain blue t-shirt and jeans came in with the stuff. I didn’t think anything about it. Drivers that contract for third-party delivery services don’t wear uniforms, and I was hungry. He didn’t give me a chance to ask any questions anyway, distracting me with making an appointment. I was glad to make it for Dr. Johnston’s business. Plus, he was a sexy silver fox and chatty, so yeah, I was distracted. He said the food was for you and me, so I thought it was you that ordered it, Dr. Johnston. Did I do something wrong? Should I open the note?” If I needed anymore confirmation that Chad had found me at last, Athena gave me plenty.
I wanted to panic, but what if Athena had eaten something bad? “No, you didn’t do anything wrong, but someone sure as hell did. Don’t bother reading the note. I know what it says. It’s the same thing every time, ‘acceptance begins now, Cherise.’ And he wouldn’t have signed it. I’ll get to that after I make sure your health hasn’t been compromised by the ‘sexy silver fox’ that fits the description perfectly of someone who’s after me.”
I turned to Mr. Graham. “We should call that ambulance now. I’m worried that she may have been targeted along with me this time.” But, Chad Lowell wouldn’t get to us again so easily. It was time to set some perimeters in place at the office and home.
Athena paled and flopped down in her seat, muttering, “Targeted? I don’t feel sick, in my stomach anyway. The food was some of the best I ever had.” She looked longingly down at the tray. She was lucky to still be hungry. My appetite had vanished.
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