Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“So what’s going on with you? I’m glad you didn’t cancel our session again this week.” Dr. Halpern crossed her legs and set her notepad on the table next to her.

It might’ve been the first time I didn’t have to hide my ogling of her shapely calves. And that wasn’t because she’d decided to wear pants for a change. She had the same long stems on display as she normally did.

I lay down on the proverbial patient couch like I always did, even though she’d told me it wasn’t necessary and most patients sat up. Apparently, the shrink sitting in a chair across from the nutjob while he spilled his guts was more for the movies than real life. Though, if I had to come here, I figured I might as well get some rest out of it.

“Did I ever tell you about the time I had the croup?” I asked her. “I was probably four, and Caroline was six or so.”

“I don’t think you’ve mentioned it, no.”

“My mother had given me the last of the ice cream, and my sister wasn’t happy about it. Mom had set up a vaporizer in my room. So while I was enjoying my ice cream, Caroline went and peed in the vaporizer. When my mother went to put me back in bed, my room was a cloud of urine mist.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dr. Halpern pick up her notepad and jot something down.

“You’re taking notes about this? Is that because you’re thinking of trying the gag on someone, or have you just found the root of all of my problems?”

Dr. Halpern set down her pad and pen. “I wrote down that you voluntarily spoke about your sister. Is there a reason you were thinking of Caroline today?”

I usually gave no real thought to anything the good doc asked, but today I did, for some reason. “Not that I’m aware of.”

“Tell me about the last forty-eight hours. Even if parts of your day were mundane, I’d like to hear about them.”

I shook my head. “You sure about that?”

Dr. Halpern folded her hands on her lap. “I am.”

“Okay… Well…”

For the next twenty minutes or so, I walked her through my last two days, though I skipped over the encounters in private with Sophia, figuring those details weren’t relevant to anything she needed to dissect. Yet she seemed to zone in on that part of my story anyway.

“So you and Sophia have some sort of history together.”

“Our families do.”

“When was the last time you saw Sophia before a few days ago?”

I smiled. “Prom night.”

“She was your prom date?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“But you saw her at prom?”

I thought back to twelve years ago. I could still see Sophia in her dress. It was red and clung to every curve. While most of the girls had looked nice, they’d also looked like they were going to prom. But not Soph. She’d looked elegant and stood out in a way that made me unable to take my eyes off her all night—even with my date telling me all the things she couldn’t wait to do with me after the prom was over.

“Yeah. She didn’t have such a great night.”

“Why is that?”

“Her boyfriend was sleeping with her cousin. She found out when she overheard them having sex in the ladies’ room stall.”

“Oh my. That must’ve put a damper on her evening.”

“Yeah, especially when I punched the dick in the nose.” Remembering the face Dr. Halpern usually made when I cursed, I added, “Sorry. When I punched the loser in the face.”

Dr. Halpern smiled. “Thank you. So you and Sophia were good friends, then?”

I smiled. “No, we hated each other.”

“But you defended her honor.”

I shrugged. “It was more that I didn’t like her boyfriend.”

“Why is that?”

I started to answer and then stopped. Why the hell were we talking about twelve years ago and whether or not I liked this guy? Turning to look at Dr. Halpern, I said, “Is there a point to all these questions? I think we’ve gone off track.”

“What do you see as on track for today? Is there something specific you feel like talking about?”

I dragged a hand through my hair. “No offense, but if it were my choice, I wouldn’t be here talking to you at all. So, no… There’s nothing specific I want to discuss today.”

She was quiet for a long time. “Let’s continue. Were Sophia and Caroline friends?”

“Caroline didn’t have a lot of friends. She was out of school so much and couldn’t do most of the things normal kids did.”

“Okay. So let’s go back to Sophia and prom for a moment. For whatever reason, you felt the need to intervene in her relationship and got into an altercation with her boyfriend. Was Sophia upset about that?”

I shrugged. “As far as I know, she wasn’t even aware it happened. She ran out right after she caught them messing around in the bathroom.”

“And that was the last time you saw her?”

I smiled. “No. I was in a shit mood. All of my friends were getting drunk and acting like idiots, and I couldn’t drink, so I left prom early. I ran into Sophia in the parking lot.”

“Why couldn’t you drink like your friends?”

“I had a procedure scheduled for the next morning. Caroline was sick again.”

Dr. Halpern frowned. “Okay. So you ran into Sophia in the parking lot, and how was that?”

I smiled. “We argued. As usual. She thought I was there to gloat about what a jerk her boyfriend was. He didn’t even chase after her. We’d both taken a limo to prom and gotten dropped off. I called my driver and had him come pick us up.”

“Okay…”

I wasn’t about to share that while Sophia was in the middle of bawling me out, I’d pressed my lips to hers, and the two of us wound up taking out our frustrations in a much more productive manner that night. “We…hung out for a while. I fell asleep at her house around the time the sun came up, and I woke up a half hour after I was supposed to be at the hospital. I got a cab and showed up in my wrinkled tux from the night before.” I shook my head. “My mother made them do a blood alcohol test on me because she thought I’d put having fun over Caroline. She didn’t believe me when I told her I didn’t have a drop to drink.”

Dr. Halpern picked up her pad and wrote for a full minute that time.

“Perhaps seeing Sophia reminded you of that time in your life—a time when you were helping your sister.”

I guess that made sense. Though my sister had been the furthest thing from my mind last night, that was for damn sure. I shrugged. “Maybe.”

We moved on from our trip down memory lane. When Dr. Halpern asked me how things were going at The Countess, I almost told her how I’d royally fucked up by sleeping with the enemy. But then I figured she might try to keep me here all afternoon to dissect the real reasons I’d done what I did.

Because no shrink accepts that sometimes you just can’t handle how the cream buttons on a royal blue silk blouse make you insane. Or how the color of those buttons exactly matches the skin on her neck, and since you can’t bite that neck like you really want to, you have to settle for listening to the little cream pearls ping against the tile floor.

Yeah, Dr. Halpern would definitely not understand that. Let’s face it, if she did, she’d be out of business. Because in order for her to maintain this fancy midtown real estate, she needs to psychoanalyze the shit out of everything we do.

But the truth of the matter is, sometimes we just act on instinct like an animal. And Sophia damn Sterling has the uncanny ability to bring out the savage in me.