Obsession: Callie Douglas, Book One

Chapter One

There are some people in this life that play an important role. They may be teachers, parents, friends, parents of friends, sports coaches, boyfriends, spouses, children. Blake Fisher was someone who wanted to play an important role in mine and, if truth be told, he had to a passing degree. The only problem was that he wanted to play more of a role, and I wanted him to play less.

I'm Callie Douglas, newly minted psychiatrist, judge of the abnormal and a little not normal myself. Nothing showed that more than my body. As a 5'2" 32D, I had a slightly more than normal figure with a slightly less than normal height. I had long hair that was too blonde to normally be considered brown but was too brown to be considered blonde, and had just enough curl that it normally would not be considered straight but was too straight for a person to consider curly, and I had abnormally small bone structure, hands and feet. But then, what was normal?

The only distinctive feature that I had were my eyes. They changed colour. With both blue and green flecks in them, they were blue when I wore blue and green when I wore green, and I could change their colour by the eye shadow I chose. It confused me every time I had to fill out a physical description on government forms. The last time I filled out my passport application it took two weeks to decide and involved an interoffice poll.

Blake Fisher, my old acquaintance who wanted to be an intimate friend, was approximately eight and five-eighths of an inch taller than me, had blond hair, blue eyes, and was good looking in a Ken-doll sort of way. Unfortunately, he knew it. He was the District Attorney for the City of Rockville and he had the confidence and swagger needed to be successful at his job and irritating as a friend.

We lived together when we were in our second year at Harvard. Lived, as in a platonic sort of way. He had a girlfriend at the time and I had a boyfriend. We both broke up with our partners that year. And when we did I found out that Blake was interested in me in a non-platonic way. I was not interested in him at all. Since he had trouble understanding that, we only lived together that one year. Despite his never-ending amorous attempts, we have remained friends ever since.

Having said that, I was thrilled when he called me to let me know that the Rockville Police Department was hiring a staff psychiatrist. He was one of my references and I don't know how much fast talking he had to do, but he landed me this fabulous job. As my first job out of my residency, working as the staff psychiatrist for the RPD to assess the mental capability of felons as well as to treat mental illness in staff, I was the envy of all my fellow graduates.

I opened my new office door and looked about the room – my brown vegan leather armchair looked quite comfortable and suitable to spend hours in each day, the coordinating brown pleather couch that looked comfortable for patients to sit on, and the less comfortable looking brown vegan leather desk chair and wooden desk. I grinned in excitement. I could hardly believe they'd hired me. It was a dream come true.

"Knock, knock", said Blake as he came into the room with a potted fern. "I thought your office could benefit from having something living in it."

"What, do I not qualify as living?" I said with a laugh.

"Of course, you're living. I just meant a happy living thing. Not that you aren't happy, but you'll deal with a lot of unhappy living things. And how would you be anything other than happy looking at this plant when it finally begins to flower?"

I didn't have the heart to tell Blake that ferns didn't flower. "That's true", I said. "Thank you for the plant."

"I know you're new in town. Do you have plans for tonight?" he asked.

"Just unpacking. I found the best condo. It overlooks the river, is on the second floor – which is a good thing since there's no elevator – and is roomy and quaint, all at the same time."