Desire and Despair

Chapter 24

Rochelle smiled to herself. It had been a good day, but she had to admit to herself the best part was that it was almost over. She loved her job, but she couldn't help being glad that she only had one more appointment before she could go home and relax on her couch with a pile of fuzzy blankets, a good book, and a cup of tea. Other people's problems were truly amusing like a reality show lived out solely for her own entertainment, but eventually, she did get rather tired of caring. After all, she had a few of her own to deal with, and she wasn't getting paid by the hour to deal with those. Her last client of the day was new, a Mr. Teddy Appleton. She instantly perked up a little, at least she'd be hearing from someone new. If she heard Ron from Cell 103 complain about his wife leaving him one more time she'd start drinking her whiskey straight up. She was dying to say she couldn't blame the poor girl, but she always managed to stop herself just in time and simply nod along. Anything for $20 an hour. What a lovely use of all her degrees.

"Hey," Teddy said as he walked in, flashing her one of his charming smiles.

She smiled back. It was hard not to. He was infectious, poisonously charming. "Hello, you're Teddy Appleton right?"

He laughed. "You can just call me Teddy."

"Lovely then, Teddy," she agreed. "Why don't you give me a quick introduction to your problems?"

"Actually," he said. "I was hoping you could do something for me."

"As in help you work through your issues?" she questioned in confusion.

He laughed like she'd somehow made a good joke. "Not exactly."

She shot him a baffled stare, utterly lost. What could he possibly want with her? At least Ron was predictable. "You realize what I'm here for, right?"

"What you're here for puts you in a unique position to help me," he explained. "And there'd be plenty in it for you, I may be in jail but money has never been a problem. If you don't believe me just look up my name."

She laughed. "What could someone with all that possibly want with me? I can't imagine myself in a very unique position, all I do is listen to middle aged men complain about their miserable little lives all day."

He grinned. "That's fair. But I need intel on one of those miserable little lives, that's what makes you so special. You've been talking to Nathan Parker for a while right?" And he filled her in on their history, and his vendetta against Nathan.

She sighed. "I have confidentiality agreements with all my clients, you can't just walk in here waving around a blank check, and make that disappear, no matter how much money you have."

He laughed. "Believe me, with enough money you can make anything disappear. How'd you like to go back to England for a while, visits all your old friends and family? Or just get a ticket out of this dead-end job, do something meaningful with your life? I have plenty of connections too." It was so easy, the game he played, toying with the things she cared for most. He'd always been good at playing with people's minds, they were all so tragically simple. Pull a few strings and anyone was reduced to nothing.

Rochelle paused for a moment, truly tempted. Confidentiality agreements were nice and all, but in the face of all these opportunities, they didn't really matter. She'd do it to almost anyone...only he'd asked for information on the one person who actually meant something to her, the one she actually cared about. She could do it, and enjoy all the benefits, but she'd lose her closest friend.

"I can't do it," she admitted finally. "He means too much to me. I can't be part of hurting him."

Teddy laughed. "Why not? Your problem is obvious. All those degrees up on the wall. I don't doubt your intelligence, but you learned right and wrong from some dusty old textbook. Nothing's that simple in reality. Come on, playing by the rules clearly hasn't gotten you very far in life. Living paycheck to paycheck, on cheap government money, homesick for people an ocean away. I can fix all of it for you. Why don't you just let me?"