NEGLECTED

Chapter One

FFION BRISDEN

For once someone returned my silence with silence. Dr. Keaton Adler wasn't trying to get me to talk, it was almost like he was purposely remaining just as silent as me to make me comfortable in this less than setting. 

But I could see his patience thinning. 

With every minute that passed his eyebrows dropped slightly, it wasn't noticeable but I was certainly assessing this man before me. He'd clear his throat, as if the silence nerved him to some degree. 

He held my stare, daring me with those summer sky blue eyes to look away first. We've known each other for all of 5 minutes and already we were playing games. How cute we were. I let him win, looking away and squinting my eyes at the notebook that laid on the coffee table between us. It was a thick book, little ripped bits of paper sticking slightly outside of the pages proving shit had just been stuffed. My desire to lean forward and neatly fix them had me slightly shifting uncomfortably in my seat. 

I doubt the fucker even used the notebook, it was probably just a centre piece that was placed to tempt a person. 

It was obvious he was a popular man and not just because he was inhumanely gorgeous. He was confident, in his body and his phony profession, hence the silence. He knew he could get someone talking eventually, no matter the amount of time. It was why he was the best...apparently. 

He hadn't tackled me yet. I doubt he'd even noticed I was assessing every inch of him as much as he were me. 

"Ms Brisden?" For a voice so rough it came out so ridiculously silky I got the urge to reach out and touch the air he breathed, sure it'd feel different to the air around me. I tore my eyes from my notebook, pushing the messy pages back into the depths of my subconscious, locking eyes with the sky. 

"I assume you know why you're here" Do I? May as well take a gander and guess from my never ending list of reasons. 

"Because I've got an invasive boss with little to no boundaries" She was made out to be a horrible person when the mention of her rolled off my tongue, even though deep down I liked the woman. I just wasn't one for taking advice from people I see maybe once a month. If I take advice from you then you've got to  be some pretty special person whose somehow earnt my trust, not a slacker boss who drinks out of a mug that reads 'don't talk to me until my cup is empty'. 

Doc's eyebrows drew down, unimpressed by my answer, his eyes bouncing to the hair I twisted around my index finger. My own eyes took in the locks on his head. Medium length dirty blonde locks that complimented his sun kissed skin. It had been raining for months on end and still he looked like he'd just come from a warm day at the beach. My skin that was olive during summer but blindingly pale during winter envied him. 

'Look at her blaming other people for her problems' He's probably thinking as those bright eyes shift back to glaring my way, but hey, he's the one who made the assumption. 

"That's not what your file says" Words on a piece of paper. He was accessing and judging me based on the words on a piece of damn paper I wasn't even the one to write on. Whilst he may not audibly judge me, the eyes never lie. 

"Shouldn't I also be allowed to read my file?" I tilted my head to the side, watching the first twinge of human emotion flicker across Dr. Adler's face as the corner of his mouth twitched up briefly. 

"No" No?

"Why not?" 

"Because it's personal and confidential" I pause for a brief second, frowning at the dumbest response to a question I've heard in a long time.