Chapter 12
God, how lonely the waiting room felt. In just a few minutes he was going to have to go through and speak to him again, have an hour long discussion about his ‘problems’ as he had put it previously. That had annoyed him but, as usual, he hadn’t said anything.
“He’s ready for you, sir,” the redhead called out from the reception desk. It appeared she had a lot of work to do today as she barely glanced at him. He had seen her last week and immediately took a liking to her. In his eyes she seemed friendly, genuine and downright gorgeous. This week he had remembered the small scrap of paper that he had torn from an old magazine. He had written his number on it and as he passed her desk he placed it on top of one of her files. She responded with an uneasy laugh and carried on with her paperwork.
He walked through the familiar door yet again to see the friendly ‘fat man’ sitting comfortably behind his desk.
“Hi, Todd, it's nice to see you again. Make yourself comfortable and then we can continue on from last week.”
Todd did as he was bidden, wriggled himself into a relaxed position on the couch and glanced at Evan.
“I saw her the other day... my love. We talked briefly and it went very well. I think she's interested in me… she said she was going to leave her husband.”
“Well, I am glad that your conversation went well, but are you completely sure she should be jumping straight into a relationship with you after having left her husband? Please think this thing through, Todd. Now I think it’s best you leave her alone, but by the sounds of our weekly discussions, it seems like you can't let her go—”
“You're not listening. She loves me!”
“Okay, okay, Todd. Relax, huh? We're not here to argue, I just want to help.”
One hour later, reflecting that the session could have gone better, Evan summoned his receptionist.
“Monica, can you cancel my last appointment for today?”
“Okay, sir. Anything else you need?”
“Yeah... you couldn’t run downstairs and grab me a black coffee? I really need a pick-me-up.” He glanced at the antique clock upon his desk. Only one o’clock? Jeez, the time was dragging today.
Moments later, Monica walked in with his coffee in one hand and a small piece of crumpled paper in another.
“Thanks, Monica. That’ll be all for now.”
Monica hesitated.
“Something on your mind?”
She cleared her throat. “Your last patient, sir... a Mr. Dremmel? He left this with me before he came into his hourly session.” She passed over the note.
'Meet me at Sunny Hotel around the corner, we can have a whole lotta fun!' His number was scrawled underneath.
“Monica, he's a man with many problems, but don't let it worry you, he's harmless. Er, but you’re not going are you?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it, no. I’m with someone, anyway. But that’s everything for today.”
She walked out quickly, and Evan took another sip of his coffee.
* * * * *
November 2nd, and Marc was sitting in the kitchen with the cell phone in his right hand. With the other hand he shakily stirred a spoonful of sugar into his nightcap of milky tea which he drank to help him sleep. It was approaching midnight and both Rachel and Jack had gone to bed.
