A Different Kind of Therapy

chapter two

The elevator dings and the doors slides open I walk down the hall to the lady behind the desk her hair teal blue, she had a lip piercing, her eyes ocean blue with heavy bags under her eyes and a pasty skin her desk was cluttered with empty coffee cups and papers her small frame barely noticeable behind the desk. I clear my throat and her eyes shoot up to mine giving me a tired smile she pushes her black framed glasses up her nose looking me over "you must be Miss Theresa Rubel" she questions and I nod.

"am I the last appointment today?" I asked "yes" a sigh of relief fel from her lips, unknowningly showing how tired she is "then go home I can see your more than tired and being that fatigued means you won’t be very productive if you start to fall asleep on your desk and I don’t want you to lose your job so go home and get some sleep I can handle your boss" I say concerned, hesitantly she eyes the door to her left and then packs her stuff and goes down the hall. I guess the door she was eyeing is the one I needed to go through ' lets get this over with' I sigh and open the door revealing a room with two black couches a desk and a laptop with papers littered around it.

The window was covered in white curtains and then I saw my therapist, my throat ran dry oh sweet lord he’s shirtless, droplets of sweat running down broad shoulders and over his muscular back and dipping into the dents caused by his lower back dimples as he keeps doing pull ups on a bar above the window his back facing me. Is it hot in here or is it just me my body heating up as I stand gawking. Wait what am I doing I cant do this I quickly turn on around pulling the door open only to tip over a vase on the little table next to the door. I flinch knowing he must have heard that and I freeze on the spot with my back to the embarrassment to come "Theresa Rubel, right?" a deep sexy voice questions I turn around and he was now facing me my eyes widen taking in his body and Oh My 'd**k me dead and bury me pregnant' he’s extremely well build not too muscular and not too little with a rock hard chest with one, two, three, four, five- six abs ready for me to cover in ice cream and lick it off with a deep v-line that probably leads to something good, I clench my thighs together .He chuckles and grabs a towel of his chair "that a very weird thing to say on your first appointment its actually the first time I’ve heard it" he smiles and wipes his sweat away I didn’t mean to say that aloud.

He pulls on a shirt and sits down on one of the couches "come sit down Theresa" he nods to the other couch opposite of his and I silently do as I am told "its Tessa" I say trying to get comfortable on the couch under his stare "if you don’t mind me asking how old are you" he seems to young to do this job he shrugs "I’m twenty five and no I’m not too young to do this job most people ask that when they see me, so Tessa what brings you to my office today?" he questions grabbing a piece of paper off his desk before sitting back down. "My mother blackmailed me into doing this so here I am"

"and by black mail you mean?" he asks reading something on the paper “I said I would come to a shrink so that she won’t send every guy she sees fit to date me to my front door and not to let my stir crazy grann loose at my job" I say and he sets the paper down raising and eyebrow "it’s says here your twenty and you have no line of medical or mental issues so why would she send you here" he sits forward with his elbows resting on his knees.

“I don’t know she tends to be a little over protective but I’m still trying to figure out if my parents are cooking up a meth lab in the basement." I say throwing my leg over the other, I can feel my skirt rile up a bit revealing a part of my tattoo but its not that bad. His eyes run me over stopping at my thighs and he gulps. So I do have an effect on him, I bite my lip as his eyes travel back up my body with a soft silent groan he quickly shakes his head and sits back his face turning all serious "what’s the real reason Tessa" my name rolling of his tongue sounds like I’m hearing it for the first time my body runs hot again, he smirks at my reaction running a hand through his silky dark brown hair, that little s**t! he actually smirked two can play that game I lean forward letting my shirt reveal my cleavage and rubbed my hands up and down on my thighs letting my skirt rile up further and looked him in the eyes "my mother is worries about me because I’m not having hot steamy s*x and because the last time I had s*x I wanted to be s*****d, you have no idea how much I enjoy a spankings during s*x it makes me moan and it makes me want to ride a guy like its the last d**k I’ll ever have" I say huskily my breathing a bit shallow from imagining him under me rolling his eyes back in pleasure as he grips my hips- he interrupts my thoughts by clearing his throat "ignoring the question and telling a fib story won’t get you out of here any faster Tessa" he say but his green eyes are filled with l**t "fine, she’s worries about me because I haven’t had a boyfriend or had s*x in over three years now and she’s says I need to deal with my issues I had in high school and get a nice man that would treat me right" I admit and he nods "oh and doctor Alexzander who said that story was a fib" I smile sweetly at him and he groans again so softly if it wasn’t so quiet I wouldn’t even hear it its kind easy to figure out his name when its on his degree plastered on his walls with many other degrees I noticed while he was reading that paper.

"what happened in high school that you need to deal with?" he asks ignoring my previous statement "I use too be obese and I had trust issues until one day a man I thought would be my prince charming came and f****d me up and then I got fed up with everyone’s s**t I endured a lot of pain and then lost a lot of weight at the university in a very unhealthy way but learned to deal with my pain and I moved on" I say staring at the clock on the wall, I’ve been here almost two hours! before he could answer I stopped him "but unfortunately that’s all the time I have for now seeing as how I already came late and its now almost midnight and I have to get up early for my Moring run. oh Ander Alexzander instead of gyming at work you might want to make time to go to an actual gym" I say rising from my seat and walking to the door tripping over the vase and almost falling but he catches me his arm snaked around my waist from behind as I slowly stand up straight feeling him flush against my back his heat engulfed me and his scent invades my nose and its heavenly. his teeth graze my ear sending parks to the pit of my stomach "call me Xander" he whispers in my ear and lets me go opening the door for me. I hate that he can make my body feel this way but I won’t let it show I quickly come back from the daze he left me in and smile evilly at him "thanks, Xander" I say seductively walking out and down the hall swaying my hips until I’m in the elevator going down. 'holy f**k I wont survive the next appointment' I say to myself and breathe but if he wants to play dirty then so can I.

The next moring I took a shower, got dressed for my run and headed out locking my door behind me. The feeling of the wind on my skin when I run makes me feel somewhat free the feeling of being able to run as fast as you can like your running away from your problems, your demons and most importantly your past and not having to worry about anything more than to put one foot in front of the other it all seems almost so effortless compared to your problems when you stop running but life is like that too and I’ve been running from one thing in my past for almost three years but I’ve felt the pain of that problem and it’s not a demon more like an angel, a fallen angel. I run back home and hop in the shower scrubbing away the sweat with my strawberry shower gel and wash my hair drying off pulling on my black thong, lace b*a with a black spaghetti strap crop top and white skinny jeans paired with black converse. Quickly brush my teeth, comb my air and spray a little perfume on grabbing my hand bag making sure I have my wallet, phone and other essentials before taking my car keys locking the door when I go out and get in my Ford mustang GT hearing it roar to life and take off to the tattoo parlour.

Today I get my second tattoo the one on my thigh goes up to under my hip bone its a tiger face with his yes the colour of the galaxy his face fades half way like its fading away its beautiful but today I get one on my shoulder blade one I’ve wanted to get since last year and today is the day I get it. The tattoo parlour is just a few block away and got there with time to spare I lock my car and check my phone seeing I got a text form my boss saying I got assigned two new clients and I won’t need to do the Zumba and yoga classes anymore and I’m thankful for that because the Zumba and yoga is annoying because people hurt themselves and that looks bad on me it’s not my fault their doing it wrong and a plus side the personal trainer gig pays much more and I need all I can get if I want to paint my apartment. I throw my phone in my bag and walk inside, the walls are covered in cool and beautiful graffiti with huge frames displaying tattoo ideas and symbols Bones was sitting on a couch waiting for me paging through a magazine "hey Bones ready to give me another none" I ask sitting my bag down next to him "I’m happy to only because your an angel Tess" he teases I smile and sit down on the table I want the name Elly in cursive writing and the letters must have space to colour it on the inside I want the letters the same galaxy colour as the tigers eyes on my thigh and its needs to have a black outlining please Bones you know your the only one that can do it" I beg he makes a quick drawing and shows me and its exactly what I wanted if not better "ohhhh yess Bones that perfect" I smile I can’t wait. Tying my hair so that it doesn’t cause problems and lay down on the stomach as he clean the skin and prepares everything he needs " on the shoulder blade" I remind him and he smiles before the needle stings my flesh. Bones I the only one I trust to do this tattoo he know the importance of it.

Bones is in his late forties he’s an old biker he now runs his biker g**g and he loves art but no other job wanted to take him because he looks like a hardened criminal but it’s the opposite actually he’s a big teddy bear he’s a real softy he lived in our street when I was growing up and he’s a real good friend of my our family he even scared the bullies away from me in school he would show up on his bike and act all dangerous and scare everyone except me he always looked out for me it’s just weird meeting a dangerous looking biker with an Australian accent." I really am sorry for what happened to Elly, Tessa" I breathe I can hear the hurt in his voice he loved her just as much as I did "I know Bones" I say tears pricking my eyes at the thought of her.

Four hours later and the tattoo was finally done Bones helps me of the table and leads me to the mirror I turn my head around and see the words beautifully inked on my skin " thank you so much Bones its a tattoo worthy of her" I hug him and walk over to my purse pulling out the money and paying for my tattoo before saying goodbye to Bones and get in my car and went home.

The rest of the week has gone by fast and on a slow pace my clients are getting fit and more into the routine of working out and my tattoo looks amazing now that it’s healed and ready to be shown to the world but I’ll keep it hidden from my parents. They invited me over for dinner with my grann at a local restaurant, ever since my parents won the lottery last year they really don’t like cooking it’s always eating at fancy places which I understand we never could afford to even go out before they won I even paid my student loan off myself with money I saved up over the years of working so now that they can afford fancy stuff I totally get it. Next session with doctor hunky is tonight after dinner so hopefully it goes alright. a nock sounds at my door and I quickly get up to answer it "hey sis guess who" my brother sings on the other side of the door I open the door smiling at him " the jackass that use to steal my Barbie dolls for his action figures" I tease and he glares at me "jackass, jackass, daddy jackass. Aunt Tessa!" yells a little girl with joy as her little arms reaches for me her father looks at me throwing daggers at me handing me the little bundle of energy I laugh and invite him in "see what you did you taught her a bad word, and in my defence the guys needed dates so don’t make fun of them" I laugh and little Emma giggles in my arms " ahh my big brother the nerd and his the guys his action figures" I smile he stares at me in annoyance "Emma we don’t say bad words remember what I taught you" I say to little Emma and place her on the counter and open a cabinet getting out the chocolate cookies I made this week letting her take one, my brother turns on my stereo and dances to one of the rock songs that came on before grabbing a cookie and stuffing his face "sooooo good" he moans in a daze before a Guns and Roses song comes on and he starts to do a dance and Emma jumps down and does the dance along with her father I bend over in laughter when he stubs his toe against my coffee table trying to shuffle. Little Emma does her dance while her father rolls on the ground in pain but he soon recovers they finish their dance.

"Aren’t we going to be late for dinner" I intervene before they could start another dance my brother pouts not wanting to go and turns off the music picking up Emma and drags me out the door "wait Brandon I need my keys, moms blackmailing me to do something after dinner and I need my keys" I whine he shrugs and drags me to his car "get in I’ll take you wherever after dinner and I’ll bring you home don’t stress little sis" he says opening the car door for me and I get in little Emma jumps on my lap and I close the door as Brandon gets in and drives to the restaurant.

"Mom why is Jerry here?" I question halfway through dinner knowing she’s trying to set me up "he’s here because we invited him" she says plainly I knew she was trying to set me up and that pisses me off I already agreed to go to the phycologist if she would leave my love life alone and now she’s pushing it. throughout the night Jerry tries to flirt with me and I just ignore him. Grann was very well behaved she only pinched the waiter's a*s once so that’s a plus side. Jerry gives me a wink and I gag he freaks me out “wine?” he asks holding a glass out for me I take the glass thanking him “bottoms up Tessa" he urges me on but I just ignore his request. My mother was busy talking to my gran and my dad was talking to my brother and Jennifer, little Emma was slurping on a strawberry milkshake “isn’t she just precocious don’t you think we should practice making one" Jerry places his hand on my thigh sliding it up I almost choke in my wine yanking his hand away glaring at him. He seems angered at my reaction I gulp down the last of the wine and he almost looks relieved. What the hell is up with him? After dinner we all stand outside “need a ride home Tessa?” Jerry offers but my brother warped his arm around my shoulder “don’t worry about het Jerry I’ll promised her I’ll take have a nice night man" he says to Jerry.

Jerry looked pissed off at my brother like my brother stole something from hi. We disband from the group telling my idiotic brother where to take me and he drops me off in front of the building with a killing headache. I sigh in relief as I approach the girl with the blue hair behind the desk she smiles and tells me to go in. I open the door and sit down pulling off my jacket it takes me a second to notice his absence my head feels like its throbbing I rummage through my purse trying to find any pain killers but I have no luck "Tessa how are you today sorry I’m late" his voice startles me as I search my jacket pockets for anything and come up empty, frustrated I throw the bag next to me on the couch "hey, its okay. my day has was okay until dinner time where I wanted to cut my own eyes out with spoon and jab knives in my ears and yours" I say laying down on the couch rubbing my temples "wow that bad, what happened?" he asks concerned, rain drops hit the window and I relax a little.

"dinner with my mom and a creep she’s trying to set me up with" I say and he chuckles" Tessa what can be so bad about that" he asks taking a seat on his desk I close my eyes and listen to the rain "my mother gave me a choice one afternoon it’s either I come here or she sets me up and now she’s downing both and it irritates me, and now she’s going on about how my brother already married and has a growing baby girl and she’s an absolute delight but me, I’m apparently weak and injured because I’m single and tonight at dinner she invited a guy I knew from kindergarten who use to look up my skirt while I swing and threw sand in my face and now he’s flirting and winking at me he even tried coming on to me tonight he makes me uncomfortable I don’t like him, the nicest thing he’s done was get me a glass of wine. My mother want to see me with someone and very soon or else I think shell make me date him and I don’t want to. It pisses me off that she tries to run my life and I don’t like the way she portrays me as a person it’s repulsive she acts like I’m a child playing house and she acts Asif I don’t know what to do with my life" I rant and sit up tying my hair up my skin feels like its on fire my phone dings and I check my messages

from: jackass:)

hey sis I can’t pick you up grann just fell asleep and I’m going to have to take her home. sorry:(

I sigh standing up feeling dizzy and nauseous walking over to where he sat on his table "do you have any aspirin?" I ask with a slur. Wait I only had one glass of wine what’s wrong with me? I don’t feel so good. I hold on to Xander my legs getting weak "Xander some-things wron-" is all I got out before I saw black dots and fell.

My eyes open the light above my head blinding me I turn my head to the side letting my eyes adjust to the harsh lighting the muffled voices became clear it’s Xander and an unfamiliar voice "she had heavy doses of Rohypnol-" that caught my attention I know this no wonder I felt funny "it’s a date r**e d**g" I say groggily trying to sit up both men heads snap towards me the doctor approaches me "how'd you know that?" he asks "PHD in medicine" he nods I didn’t take it someone must have slipped it in my drink at the restaurant" I reach for a glass of water on the table next to the chair Xander quickly grabs the glass and hands it too me the iv stopping me from doing it I pull the iv out and grabbed the glass "why the hell am I on an IV" I ask "sorry we wanted to flush the d**g out of you faster, we notified your family and their on they’re why" the doctor says taping cotton wool over the area I pulled out the need to stop the bleeding and walked out.

I sit up downing the water "are you okay? who did this to you? did he do anything to you?” Xander asks angrily his jaw clenching as he sits down in front of me " it’s Jerry he gave me a glass of wine I didn’t drink more than that glass the entire night" I answer truthfully "that fucker" he mutters anger oozing off of him " I’m fine Xander relax at least I got away because if I stayed who knows what could have happened but, thanks to you I didn’t" I say he takes my hand in his "thanks for bringing me here"

He tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear the movement set off butterflies in my stomach his touch is so soft and caring. He traces my cheek with his thumb his gaze never leaving mine my mouth runs dry l can feel myself leaing in and so does he our lips inches apart "aunt Tessa are you okay" Emma bursts through the door and I smile Xander chuckles and pulls away getting up from the bed picking Emma up and sitting her down on the bed and he sits on the plastic chair next to my bed "hi you, I’m okay. I’m glad to see you" I say peppering her face with kisses the little red haired girl erupts in a fit of giggles I love that sound the sound of a child's pure joy my eyes wander over to Xander and he has a real smile on his face showing his perfect teeth and a dimple. Holy f**k he's hot there is an unreadable emotion in his eyes as he looks at me with little Emma "Tessa are you okay?" my Brother comes crashing into the room before he could fall face forward he hold onto my bed his face now at my feet Emma giggles and crawls to the foot of the bed pinching Brandon’s cheeks with her little fingers "daddy" she squeals and release his cheeks he kisses the top of her head I giggle and Brandon eyes Xander "Brandon this is Xander, Xander this is my i***t brother" everyone from dinner piles in my room "and that’s my mom, dad, grann, Jennifer- my brothers wife" and then he steps through the door acting all innocent I back up as he steps closer "Jerry get the f**k away from me" I spit at him that’s when Xander jumped up grabbing Jerry by the collar of his shirt and then his fist connected with Jerry's jaw the next one with his nose then Jerry falls to the grown and then Xander was on top of him "Xander stop!" I yell when Jerry's face is covered in blood "you drugged her, punch, you were going to r**e her, punch ,you sick, punch, f**k" punch my brother pulls Xander off of him "what the f**k man!" Brandon shouts "he drugged me Brandon the doctors found it in the wine he gave me " I say then Brandon let Xander go giving him a pat on the back and Jerry laughs "it was almost too easy if only you didn’t go it would have been such a good night for me" he laughs at me spitting the blood out of his mouth "daddy call the police" Emma suggested and Jennifer kick him in the jaw knocking him out." I’ll call the police" she volunteers and leaves the room.

"who may I ask might you be" my father asks Xander holding out his hand "this I-" Xander cuts me off "don’t worry love I can introduce myself, hi I’m Alexander the boyfriend" Xander shakes his hand. I just stare at him astonished his sexy British accent making everything he says sound good. Why would Xander introduce himself as my boyfriend to my parents?

"where did you dig him up" my dad askes pleased everyone starts chatting I just stare at little Emma " auntie Tess I’m tired can you sing to me?" I smile at her scooting over in the bed she climbs under the covers and snuggles in to me staring up at me expectantly with those baby blue eyes my voice is okay its not heavenly but don’t sing bad so I softly sing to her.

"Hold me close and hold me fast. The magic spell you cast, this is la vie en rose

when you kiss me, heaven sighs. and though I close my eyes, I see la vie en rose" I sing softly rubbing her back soothingly as her eyes flutter close the voices in the room are still there but much more silent Asif knowing she’s falling sleep

"when you press me to your heart. and in a world apart, a world where roses bloom

and when you speak angels sing from above, everyday words seems to turn into love songs " I place a soft kiss to her head and continue

"give your heart and soul to me and life will always be, la vie en rose"

I finish the song whispering goodnight to her and look back to my family only to find them staring at me my mom and dad smiles at me " I remember how you would sing that to me when I was sick" Brandon similes softly at me and Emma. My eyes yet again wanders over to Xander and he carries that very same unreadable emotion in his eyes as he watches us. “honey we have to go visiting hour are over I’ll see you tomorrow okay" my dad says kissing me on the head my mom nods with guild in her eyes leaving me "hey sis do you want me to take her or are you going to be the best sister ever and babysit for me" he plea's with a smug look knowing I would never say no "yeah sure go have fun and take Jennifer out for a night I got this" I say staring down at Emmie smiling. Brandon moves closer kissing the little red head on the cheek and ruffles my hair I swat his hand away "oh grow up jackass" he leaves and Jennifer waves goodbye to us.

♤☆♤☆♤