Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 82186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“You did?” Aaron was surprised.
“Well, yeah,” he answered with a shrug. “I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression, and lying just extends things when they don’t hafta be, don’t you agree?”
“I do,” Aaron conceded, squinting at Kola. “You’re not a game player. I can assure you that later in your dating life, this will be a well-admired trait.”
He shrugged. “Dad says anything that saves time is good.”
“Your father is very wise,” Aaron assured him.
Brunch was amazing, as it usually was there, and on the way back Aaron asked the group why it was so hard to find a therapist they liked.
They all started answering him at once, talking over each other, which gave me time to think.
The poor woman Aja had directed me to first didn’t understand why all four of them needed to go in together. Normally, she explained to them, therapy was done one-on-one.
“What about group therapy?” Kola wanted to know.
She glanced at me nervously, where I sat on a couch in the corner.
“Group is better,” Jake assured her. “Since we’re not all the same amount of messed up.”
“I’m sorry?” Dr. Tabitha St. Clare asked him.
“Well, like, Hannah was kidnapped when she was really little, and all of us were held at gunpoint at our favorite Italian place not super-long ago, and this latest thing with George… I mean, I didn’t even have that whole, ‘shit, I’m gonna die’ moment ’cause I saw him first and so I wasn’t scared.”
“Same,” Harper chimed in. “And then when we were held at the Italian restaurant, I figured Mr. Kage was out there, so he’d save us.”
She looked confused, and I cleared my throat and leaned forward. “Perhaps we can keep the discussion confined to the incident that most recently occurred,” I suggested.
“Well, I, for one, was worried because we didn’t have any imminent backup. I thought Dad was still out of town, and George was stuck at the airport,” Hannah explained, not once looking up from what she was typing on her phone. “And if those guys were dead set on shooting us, that could have been very scary. But, like Jake,” she said, looking up to beam at her boyfriend and then give the therapist a smidge of a smile before her eyes were back on her screen, “I came later to the party than I would have liked, and I have to remember to look at everything, not just the person I love in those situations, and––”
“Awww,” Kola teased her, “you love me.”
“God knows why,” she growled, scowling at him, but then her face softened as she again went back to typing. “But I had such a narrow field of vision that I didn’t turn and hit the second guy as well.”
“Hit who?” Dr. Clare asked, sounding utterly forlorn.
“George killed those guys fast,” Jake commented. “I mean, is that what they teach you in Special Forces? He was like Denzel Washington in The Equalizer.”
It was over at that point. It was too much information to be bombarded with. Poor Dr. Clare was in over her head.
The next one, I sent a summary of the situation before we showed up for our appointment. She, Dr. Simmons this time, wanted the kids in individually first.
Harper went in and was out in a couple of minutes. Kola went next and was in there about the same. Jake took less time, and then I went in with Hannah, since she was underage and requested that I go in with her.
The office appeared as though Dr. Simmons had just moved in, which I suspected had bothered Kola. He felt a messy space meant that one was incapable of clear, concise thought. If your area was in disorder, your mind must be as well. And it wasn’t that he couldn’t tell the difference between clutter, like his grandmother’s house, and disarray or actual hoarding. He could. He saw that his grandparents needed more shelving in their new ranch-style home in LaGrange, and he and Jake were going to go over there and install and paint over fall break, but disorganization was a whole other thing.
“I’m sorry for the mess,” Dr. Simmons apologized. “Your son was quite distressed.”
I nodded.
“We’re still moving in here.”
Second nod from me.
She turned to Hannah then, smiling. “So, Hannah, could you tell me a little about why you think you’re here?”
My daughter’s eyes narrowed as she regarded the woman. “Did you just get divorced?”
“Pardon me?”
Hannah pointed at her folded hands on the desk. “I can see you used to wear a ring, either a big one or a set, based on the width of the indentation and discoloration—and off-topic, you should drink more water. Your skin should be snapping back, not creasing like it is at the moment—but yes, divorced, I think, and there is a lot of wall space in here, and I see book boxes, but nothing large enough for pictures, so they’re either coming, or they’re not because you had to leave them with your ex-husband, or ex-wife, in the settlement. Though there weren’t any on the walls in the lobby either.”