Couple's Therapy

CHAPTER ONE

"So, even though I wasn't the one who broke my Mother's favourite rod and reel, my Daddy made me stand in the corner for two hours as punishment. Which, I guess, is why I have a problem with authority. This is fascinating!" Reba exclaimed as she paced behind the sofa in Dr. Joseph Baker's office.

"Oh, yeah?" Dr. Baker asked.

"Yes!" she said excitedly.

While he was intrigued by her innate ability to work through her deep-seated personal issues with no outside interference, Dr. Baker desperately wanted to steer this impromptu session with Brock and his ex-wife back on track. He would pencil her in for a solo session if working on her problems was what she truly wanted. However, he suspected she was blissfully unaware of the diversion tactic she'd been using for the past twenty minutes to avoid getting to the heart of why she had abruptly shown up here in the first place.

"Now, about your current relationship with Brock," he urged.

She set her hands down on the back of the couch cushions. "Oh, wait a minute. I'm not through talkin' about my Daddy yet!" she said.

He exhaled and let his hand fall onto the arm of the chair.

Brock shook his head in equal irritation. "You see why we got divorced? She never wanted to talk about our relationship," he said.

Reba scoffed. "That was you, you mo-ron."

"Well, I want to talk about it now," he said.

"We don't have a relationship now!" she exclaimed as she rounded the sofa to face them both head-on.

Dr. Baker sighed. "And yet, here you are." He leaned forward, "Why are you here?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Well, if I yelled at you over the phone, you could hang up."

"So, you're here because of our relationship?" he sat back and pointed between her and himself.

"Well, You gotta admit it needs work," she agreed.

He smirked, twisting the eraser of his pencil against his temple. In the twenty minutes he had come to know her, he had already come to admire her witty sense of humour and backhanded retorts.

"Y'know," she put her hands on her hips, her tone suddenly becoming serious. "If you spent less time jokin' around and more time on gettin' people back together, I wouldn't have to come home and find my husband fixin' my sink!" she jabbed an accusatory finger pointing in Brock's direction.

Dr. Baker pointed his pencil at Brock, "You mean your ex-husband."

She looked down, only now realizing her slip. "Okay. Ha, ha, ha, point for you." Her voice had gone thin as she tried to deflect. "You're the therapist; you know what I meant!"

"Still, for someone who's moved "so far" past on. That's a strange slip." Dr. Baker said, throwing her previous statement back at her. Her anger had returned, and he now realized that it was in the heat of the moment she disclosed the real root of her problems.

Uncomfortable, she shifted her weight to one foot. "Not so strange when he's practically livin' at my house."

Brock scoffed, "Yeah, to be with the kids."

Dr. Baker had no intention of stopping them this time. Letting her get this off her chest was the only way they were going to make any headway here.

She turned her icy glare on her ex-husband. "They're not the only ones livin' there!" she spat.

"Well, I didn't know it was such a big deal," he said.

Her jaw dropped, and she grasped at the air between them. "How could you not know?" she choked out. She was desperate to put something between him and the growing sense of hysteria rising in her chest, so she retreated behind the sofa again. "Do you think I like settin' an extra place at the dinner table or droppin' everything because you need a fourth for Pictionary?" she cried. "Or when I have to sit there and watch your victory dance because your team won because I got stuck with Jake!"