Anna dove into a story about a skinny drummer with a mohawk she’d met at a coffee shop last weekend, who had the thickest penis she’d ever seen. She had me laughing, and within a few minutes, I’d forgotten all about the weird feeling I’d had—at least temporarily.

***

“Hey, beautiful.” Braden sat back in his chair and smiled. “I didn’t know you were coming by. This is a nice surprise.”

I walked behind Braden’s desk, set down one of the two bags in my hand, and leaned in to give him a kiss. “My dad’s been working so much lately, I made him a healthy lunch. He forgets to eat when he’s on trial. Figured I’d bring you something, too.”

He wrapped his fingers around my waist and yanked me down onto his lap.

I giggled. “Your door’s open. Anyone can walk by.”

“It’s Sunday. There’re only a few of us here.”

Braden brushed his nose with mine. “I’ve missed you.”

“Me too.” I smiled. “Are we still on for tonight?”

He brushed a lock of my hair from my face. “We’re definitely on. I made a reservation for seven o’clock at that new little Italian place you loved.”

“Oh, yum. Will you be here until then?”

“Probably. I didn’t get as much done as I thought I would yesterday.”

For some reason, the car I’d seen in the parking lot yesterday popped into my head. “How late did you stay last night?”

“I don’t know.” Braden shrugged. “Probably about nine.”

I smiled. “Well, then, I’ll let you go so you can get out of here in time for dinner tonight. Plus, I don’t want my dad’s lunch to get cold. I’m going to run upstairs to his office.”

“Alright. I’ll pick you up around six thirty.”

I kissed him one more time before heading upstairs where my dad had the proverbial corner office.

“Knock, knock,” I said. “Delivery for Mr. Workaholic.”

My father tossed his pen on his desk and smiled. “What are you doing here, pumpkin?”

I held up the bag of food. “I made you some lunch. I know how you get when you’re in the middle of a trial. You either forget to eat or eat crap.”

He smiled warmly. “Your mother used to bring me lunch when I worked on the weekends.”

“I know. But you didn’t work Sundays back then.”

“I still try not to unless it’s absolutely necessary. But I had no choice today. I lost the whole damn afternoon yesterday because of the damn bedbugs.”

My nose scrunched up. “Bedbugs?”

He thumbed toward the ceiling. “The insurance company one floor up found bedbugs in a couch in their lobby, so building maintenance inspected the entire place. We had a few in our lobby, too. They bombed the entire building last night. No one could enter for twelve hours.”

“I thought I heard you leave the house at six o’clock this morning?”

My dad nodded. “I did.”

“What time did they bomb the office yesterday?”

“Five in the evening.”

“Five? So no one could be in the building after five o’clock?”

“Not unless they wanted to grow a third arm.”

“What if someone was here when they set off the bug bombs?”

My dad shook his head. “No one was here. I had security go office by office to make sure the place was empty before we let the fumigation start.”

CHAPTER 22

* * *

Autumn

“It’s nice to see you, Autumn.” Dr. Lillian Burke folded her hands on top of the notebook on her lap. “You look really well. You’ve let your hair grow longer.”

I reached up and twirled a strand of my hair. “Yeah, just more that winds up in a bun on the top of my head, I suppose.”

“So how are things going? Are you still working for social services?”

“I am, and I still love it.” I smiled. “Best decision you ever helped me make.”

Lillian smiled. “I’m thrilled to hear that. We spend more time at our jobs than we do with loved ones, so it’s important to enjoy what we do.”

“I’m actually working toward my PhD now. I don’t think I’d started that when we last spoke. I was thinking about how long it’s been since I’ve been here while I was in the waiting room. I thought it was two years, but I think it’s been more like three.”

“It has. Next month will be three years, actually. I had to look myself earlier. But congratulations on your schooling. We’d talked about you wanting to become a therapist, but you hadn’t yet begun a program. That’s fantastic.”

“I’ve taken it slow, part time, but I’m getting there. I should graduate after two more semesters. Honestly, I think part of the reason I stopped coming to see you is because I felt like I needed to be able to stand on my own two feet if I was going to be sitting in your chair at some point.”

“We’ve discussed this. Therapists have therapists. It’s not only okay, it’s encouraged in this profession.”

I nodded. “I know. I think I just needed to feel like I could survive without you. Now that I know I can, I don’t feel like it’s an issue anymore.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear you feel like you can survive without me. Although I never had any doubts.”

“Thanks.”

“So tell me what’s going on in your life. How are things with your father?”

“About the same. He’s getting married in a few weeks…again. He showed up at my apartment last night because I hadn’t sent back the response card, and I’d been avoiding his calls because I didn’t want to debate my not wanting to go to the wedding.”

Lillian smiled. “Seems like I didn’t miss much on that front.”

“Definitely not. Married. Divorced. Rinse. Repeat.”

“And you? Are you still taking Ambien to help you sleep at night?”

“My regular doctor has been bugging me to try to wean off, like you always did. But, yeah. I still need them to sleep.”

She nodded.

“Did you know dolphins sleep with one eye open?”

“Do they?”

“It’s called unihemispheric sleeping. The right eye closes when the left side of the brain sleeps, and the left closes when the right sleeps. They can’t fully sleep because they need to remember to breathe.”

Lillian smiled. “I’ve missed your random facts. But since you aren’t, in fact, a dolphin, I still think weaning off might be a good thing.”

I sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

“How about your personal life? Is there someone special these days? Dating anyone?”

“I’m not dating anyone. I was, but I ended it recently.”

“Why did you end it?”

“I felt bad because I have growing feelings for someone else.”

“Oh…” Lillian picked up her pen from the end table and wrote something down in her book. “I’d have to look back in my notes, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time you’ve mentioned having feelings for someone. Obviously we’ve talked about men you’ve dated, but you usually use words like compatible or having fun to describe your relationships, not feelings. I’m excited to hear you’re interested in someone you have an emotional connection with. The woman who sat across from me a few years ago would’ve run the other way if her heart got invested in a man.”