Reckoning in the Sunshine State

Chapter Six

I'm greeted by Dr. Oliveria. Her fiery red hair and green eyes provided a little bit of comfort. I hadn't seen her for a while. Though when we did it was only on video through telecall. This was our first time ever meeting physically in the real world and not just behind a little screen.

"It's so nice to finally meet in person for the first time in two years." She says smiling and I give her a weak smile. I look at the clock on the right side of the room and she frowns.

"I'm sorry those things are bolted on so I don't have a way of taking it down." she says and I shake my head.

"It's fine, don't mind me." I say wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans. She gestures towards a royal blue couch. It has a velvety feel to it, as I touch it with my hands.

"Thank you for coming to the office!" She says pulling her chair close to the coffee table that separates us.

"Ah, well your physical office is only 20 minutes from my new apartment so I figured since you were squeezing me in for a back to back since your previous patience canceled it would be nice to meet face to face." I say. Honestly she has been a great help to me for the last year since I started. I was fortunate that she operated in Virginia and her physical practice was in Orlando.

"It certainly is nice!" She says before clapping.

"Now let's get down to it. What brings you in today, is everything alright?" She asks. I was finally able to feel my heartbeat begin to pick up. I fight back the tears by looking up and trying to look anywhere but at her.

"Ah, well you know how the stalking started with that person." I say taking a deep breath trying to remember what the last thing we talked about was.

"Yes, you were dissociating from your ex after the relationship had ended and fell into a forced friendship by him when he began stalking you." She says. She had known my ex was stalking me. She knew about the recent incidents that caused me to make the decision to move to Florida to get away. However, there were still a lot of things she didn't know.

"Is he still contacting you?" She asked with a genuine concerned look on her face. I nodded yes.

"He's been emailing me and even when I block the emails or mark them as spam I get a new email from another anonymous email so I just archive the emails at this point after reading them." I say looking at my hands.

"Why don't you change your email?" She asked. It was a question I received a lot. It sounds like an easy solution but it's not, though I'm sure there will alway be people who believe that I'm making excuses like some people.

"That email is attached to all my applications, jobs, tax returns, bills, and more. It takes some time to transfer over." I say and she doesn't condemn me like others have.

"Well as long as you are in the process of transferring that over progress is progress no matter how small or slow." I look back at her and she gives me a hopeful smile.

"I was recently triggered by an image he sent me with some quotes recently. The image triggered me the most, however, to explain that. We will have to go back a bit to some parts I haven't mentioned in our previous sessions. I take a deep breath and I can feel my face starting to get hot.

"I had been dating that person for about a year at this point. We had a cat together, she was a cute gray striped cat with a 6th toe on each of her front two paws. She was so full of energy and playful when we saw her at the pet adoption center." I say and she looks at me patiently waiting for me to continue.

"She only had one grayish blue eye but I still thought she was beautiful. She had been returned by her previous honor after a dog had attacked her and they were able to save her. She had been there for two years and they were getting ready to transfer her to a kill shelter when we got there.