“Why do you think that?” She picks up her phone and, after a moment, murmurs, “Tell Mr. Hart we’re ready for him in just one minute.” She places the phone down and studies me. “Allyson? Why do you think you should sit out?”
“Because I know him.”
“Do you?” Her brow wings up. “A moment ago, you said you had no clue what his last name was.”
“Well, no. I don’t. I didn’t… Hart?”
She grins. “I already told you, Allyson. This is a small town, everyone knows everyone. So if I were to exclude patients on the basis of knowing who they are, or seeing them in town, then I wouldn’t have a job, and they wouldn’t have the help they need.”
“So you think I should stay?” I wipe my clammy palms on my pants. “I should stay?”
“I think you deciding is a moment of growth for you. I will not tell you what to do, nor will I tell you what I think is right. I need you to make that choice, and then to follow it through. Be brave, Allyson. I now you know how.”
A knock at the door vibrates through my back and makes me jump and squeak. “Oh god. Oh lord.” Do not hyperventilate. Do not make yourself look like a dick!
“Open the door, Allyson. Then make your choice.”
Luke
Well, Well, Wellity Well
The office door swings open so I’m met with a passive, friendly smile. “Hello.” Doogie Howser’s female-equivalent welcomes me in. “Come on in and take a seat.”
I try to catch her eyes, to tease and to explain, but she keeps her gaze down and waits as I swagger into the room and stop by the couch. I meet Sonia’s eyes and lift both brows. “What’s shakin’, doc?”
“Luke.” Smiling, kind as always, Sonia comes to a single chair with her cup of tea and sits down with more grace than every woman I know – collectively – possesses. “If you could just take a seat, I can explain our additional friend, and then we can get started. Allyson, if you could please shut the door?”
“Allyson?” I sit down on the double sofa and lounge back to make myself comfortable. I wait for Allyson to close the door, then for her to sluggishly turn and make her way over to us. “And to think, I was calling you Doogie.”
“Luke.” Sonia speaks, she takes control and drags my gaze back to her. “Allyson Moore is a psychology student in her final year at college, and to graduate, she needs work experience hours in a live, practicing office setting. This is where she has chosen to complete her hours.”
I turn to her, to Allyson, and smile. “Color me intrigued.”
“Now, for her to get these hours,” Sonia says. “She must sit in on real-life sessions. That would mean she has access to my clients and their information. She would listen to whatever you have to say today, she might make notes, and at the end of term when she’s asked to present her final paper for graduation, she might like to use examples and discussion topics from things she hears in this room. I can assure you that confidentiality will remain top priority, always. Names will never be written down, identifying specifics will never be recorded. And her being here is purely your choice.”
“My choice?” I study Sonia, then Allyson as she nervously folds her legs together. She can’t decide between closed-off, or elegant princess the way Sonia does it.
“Yes. Your choice. You can merely say no,” Sonia explains. “And that would be okay. Allyson would leave, and that would be the end of it. You could say yes today, but no next time, and still, that would be okay. If at any point during your hour you become uncomfortable, she would leave and that would be fine. If you choose for her to stay, she will observe, she will listen, and she may like to speak, but she will not detract from your time here. She will enhance, not be a bother. If you’re okay with it, we can get started right now. But if you’re not, Allyson has plenty of work to do in another part of this practice, and there would be no hard feelings.”
“Have you given this speech to every single other client you’ve seen?” I look to Allyson and grin. “I saw you, what, a week ago? That’s a lot of clients.”
“I explain her purpose,” Sonia says and continues to save Allyson from having to speak. “I ask each and every client if they’re okay with our guest. And then we get started.”
“So I guess I’m good with our guest.” I’m not normally this obnoxious, I swear I’m not, but I turn on the couch, kick my legs up to rest on the arm, and lay back against the opposite end. Then I smile, because Sonia sees the back of my head, but I see all of Allyson. “Does she know why I’m here?”
For once, Allyson herself answers. “I’m coming into this blind. But you don’t have to give me backstory or anything. I’ll catch up quickly.”
“I’m here because a judge ordered it.” I make her nervous, twitchy, and a little hot when she desperately wishes I didn’t. “I got into a fight with a guy and his two pals a few weeks back. They wanted to discuss… er… a girl. They weren’t happy she had spent a little time with me, so they came to me to, uh, negotiate.” I grin. “They lost.”
Not my best moment, I think to myself. Not the best starting-off topic. “So we got into a fight, but these boys were big, and their families weren’t happy. I got my ass arrested, we went to court, and the judge ordered I talk to the sweet Sonia or risk going to jail.”
“Not to minimize what happened,” Sonia inserts, “but I suspect it was more of a scare tactic to help straighten out our local chaos creator. Luke needs a lesson in humility. Not time spent in prison. So he’s to come here for his sessions, work through what’s going on in his mind, and then he goes home knowing that the world isn’t black and white.”
I look to Allyson. “Sonia used to be my dad’s therapist. He was seriously wound up tight, he was screwing up his relationship with my mom because he was a stubborn ass who wouldn’t admit he was worthy of love, and because of it, they almost lost the best kind of love.”
“That was a lifetime ago,” Sonia sighs nostalgically. “He was the age you are now, Luke. A couple years older. Pre kids, back when it was just him and your mom wading through stormy seas.”
“He was worthy of love,” I tell Allyson. “And because he finally admitted it, he got the girl, and together, they got the kids and the white picket fence.”
“They don’t actually have a picket fence,” Sonia quickly corrects. “But I guess that’s beside the point.”
“Can I ask…” Allyson looks to me, then to Sonia. “Can I ask questions?”
“Luke has the power,” Sonia replies in her non-answer. “In this room, he will always have the power. So why don’t you ask him, and then he can choose whether he’ll answer or not.”
“Yeah, Doogie. Ask me. Scan my brain and let me know what you find.”
“Do you think…” She unfolds and refolds her legs. “Do you think that perhaps you’re a little too… um… friendly with women, because of the lessons your father taught you?”