Pills and Pain [Completed]

and then the tears came

Wednesday

The door to my little office opened. I looked up from my laptop. Ben, my personal assistant poked his head in.

"Hey, boss, Miss Monroe is here for her two-thirty appointment."

I nodded. "Let her in then."

Ben stepped aside and in came Mrs. Monroe. She was a heavy-set woman so her steps were slow and long.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Monroe. Have a seat." I motioned towards the couch I had all of my clients recline in.

"Thank you, Rider."

Mrs. Monroe set her oversized purse on the floor and sat down, taking up more than half of the couch with her body and fluffy skirt.

"Thanks, Ben," I called out to his retreating figure as he left, slamming the door behind him.

Mrs. Monroe's hands flew to her ear and she scowled. "Oh, my gracious."

"Sorry about that, Ben can be quite loud sometimes."

"So, I've noticed."

"Would you like a drink? Coffee? Tea? Coke?"

"I'm very good. Thanks."

Mr. Monroe had suggested for her to meet up with me due to some of her unexplainable anxieties. I could tell even after three sessions, she was still not comfortable with me. And that was okay. My job was to fix what was wrong with the individuals not to get buddy-buddy with them. If that happened, great, if it didn't, no sweat off of my brows.

"So, what would you like to talk about, Mrs. Monroe?"

"Kate."

Calling her Kate made her feel young again. That's what she told me the last time we had a talk.

"Right. Kate. What would you like to talk about?"

She stared out of the window instead of answering. I followed her gaze and found nothing extraordinary outside. My office was right beside a giant weeping willow preventing the eye to see anything but long, green dancing leaves that reminded me of home.

"I think he's cheating on me."

"Your husband?"

Mrs. Monroe turned to me with glassy eyes. I could see the agony and hurt in her blue orbs.

Marriage counseling was out of my jurisdiction, but how was I to say this to her?

"Why do you feel like this, Kate?"

"Last night, he was in the shower, so I took his phone...and...and." Tears spilled from her eye lids running down her cheeks and disappearing into her collar.

"I saw pictures on his phone. Pictures from his hot new secretary."

"Did you confront him?"

She shook her head. "What's the use? He will just deny it until he's blue in the face."

I nodded in understanding.

"See, this is what I was afraid of."

Now we're getting somewhere.

"What are you afraid of?"

"Growing old. I knew that one day he'd stop seeing me as his 'beautiful, young wife' and start to see me as I now am. 'Old and ugly'."

"Kate, you are not ugly."

It was the truth. Even though she never let me get too close, emotionally speaking, I could tell that Kate was the kind of woman who cared about her family and everyone around her. She wasn't a material woman as so many other women I knew. She understood the real values in things that money could buy. And those were what I based attraction off of.

"Michael doesn't think so."

"Michael is...well..."

I didn't want to talk bad about her husband, because if she was anything like my mother, no matter what the man did or said, she would defend him until she was blue in the face. And there was no point in starting an argument I would never win.

"I just wish that I could be young again. Then maybe he wouldn't be sneaking around with that woman."

"It's not your fault, Kate, it's his."

She shook her head stubbornly sending her brown curls all over her face. "No, Rider. It is." She used the back of her hand to brush the curls back in place. "I let myself fall away. Look at me. Do you see me? I don't blame him for not being attracted to me anymore."

Kate sighed. It was the sigh of desperation. "I use to be skinny."

"Being skinny does not define your worth."

"Oh, but it does. My husband is a model manager. He's around skinny people twenty-four seven. I can understand why he wouldn't want to be seen with me anymore."

And then the tears came.

Like rain in a sudden storm.

But I had already predicted this rainfall.

Her shoulders shook ever so violently. If she was nature, her shaking shoulders would be thunder claps and her cries would be lightning.

I leaned over and yanked a tissue from the Kleenex box.

"Here you are, Kate."

She took it with a grateful nod then buried her face in it.

"He doesn't deserve you," I said placing my hand on her knee. "You are worth more than what the mirror or weight scale says."

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