Keeping You

Chapter Four

Caleb

"I didn't think you'd come back today."

She sat there, even more, fidgety and nervous than yesterday, but there was something different in her eyes. She refused to make eye contact with me when she walked in.

She darted in from the door, straight to the couch, and kept her eyes focused on the carpet. Her nimble fingers played with the hem of her dress.

A tight, long-sleeved black dress clung and accentuated every inch of her delicious body. A body that would look so fucking pretty beneath me.

The dress dip showed a bit of cleavage, and I could see her nervousness from the unsteady fall and rise of her breasts.

Yesterday she had no makeup on, but today she had some sort of gloss and mascara, and her hair was let down in blown-out waves. Beautiful was an understatement. She was breathtaking.

Stunning.

"I didn't know if I was allowed to come back without my husband. I mean, this is couples therapy, right, not pathetic single-person therapy?"

My brows wrinkled in confusion at her lame attempt at a joke.

"Pathetic? Who said you were pathetic?" I watched her peek at me through her dark lashes and dismiss me with her hand.

"How long have you and Toby been friends?" She asked.

"For as long as I can remember."

"You don't look like you're the same age." She speculated.

"He's three years older than me."

She hummed in response. "He's a nice guy. I feel bad sometimes when I talk to him."

"Why?"

"I feel like every conversation we have is me venting and bitching about my life. And then I leave the gym, and then come here and do the exact same thing."

"Toby views you as a friend, not a nuisance," I explained. "I don't mean to brag, Mrs. Sullivan, but I'm very good at my job. My sessions start at $800 an hour."

"When Toby called me up and told me that he had a friend who was in dire need of help, I offered up my help without a doubt. The fact that your brain jumped to this conclusion speaks a lot about your character."

"About my character?"

"Yes. It tells me that you grew up in a household where your opinion and feelings didn't matter. That you grew up around emotionally unavailable parents."

"Which explains the only child aspect of your life and why you dream of a bigger and better family. The vulnerable, almost childlike part of you speaks to your childhood."

"Maybe your parents didn't spend time with you, and maybe you would isolate yourself when you felt overwhelmed. If Simon, your husband, was the first person to form and bond with you emotionally and physically."

"It's possible that you latched on because you were afraid you'd never find love again. If you grew up in a dysfunctional household, it would explain why you are staying in your unhappy marriage.

"Because you fear that if you were to get a divorce, you'd be just like your parents. You tend to give in, submit, and hide behind your shell to avoid confrontation because you emotionally can't handle it."

"My parents felt like roommates sometimes. They were like ships passing by at night. Sometimes it was so quiet because they barely spoke to each other."

She spoke with a sad sigh.

"It's not that they were bad parents. They never raised their hand on me or made me feel bad, but sometimes I felt like they hated me because I was pregnant when they got married. Like it was my fault."