“Are you serious?”Ian groaned.
“He’s gay?”she offered.
“So I’m supposed to hire him because he’sfamily?Andy, c’mon.”They quickly fell into the sort of banter Ian had already become used to with her.Thank God.He finally agreed to interview her brother, and she agreed to do some of his paperwork in exchange.
Before Andy left, he told her, “I trust you.”
She smiled, then asked, “Did you apologize to your friend for laughing at Tierney’s comment?”
If Ian hadn’t been so surprised Andy had the balls to ask, he would have refused to answer.But he only cleared his throat and said, “Yeah.”
Andy was a wily thing.
On Friday morning during his appointment with his therapist, Janet, Ian spent the first half of the hour staring at her spider plant and talking about all the things he’d been avoiding during his previous sessions.The spider plant was the most colorful thing in the room.She had a pale yellow couch, cream walls, white shades over the windows—streaming white light into the room.Even her desk was white.
He’d only been her client a month, so he didn’t have a lot of material for avoidance, and the spider plant wasn’t much of an assist.If he were still in California with his former therapist, he’d have been able to fill the whole hour with problems he’d dodged.Besides, Ned had a really colorful oriental rug.
Finally, it was either talk about his mother’s death or talk about the other thing he’d been trying to avoid.He gave up on the plant and turned to Janet, trying to decide.She looked back at him with her customary calm.
Hell.He slumped in his seat.“I met someone.”
Janet raised an eyebrow, somehow still looking benign.It was a ruse.“A man?”
“Yes.”Ian paused to clear the frog out of his throat.“He’s a lot younger than me.”
She smiled.“Is he of legal age?”
“Of course!”
“Then does it matter how much younger he is?”
“Don’t know,” he muttered.
“Do you want to talk about him?”
Ian crossed his arms over his chest.“No.”
She shrugged.“Okay, what do you want to talk about?”
“He’s almost ten years younger than me.That’s not so bad, right?”
“Lots of men your age feel pride when they attract someone in their early twenties.”
Ian straightened up, struck by the thought.
Janet broke the silence again.“So, you’re seeing someone?”
“No, I met someone.”
“Well, it must be significant for you to mention it.”
“Yeah, well ...I had sex with him.”
Janet raised both eyebrows but didn’t say anything.
Ian sighed.“I know I wasn’t supposed to hop into bed with anyone until ...”
Janet waited a few seconds for him to go on before she said, “You’re the one who decided it was better for your development to not have casual sex.I don’t disagree with your choice, and neither did Ned, but that doesn’t make it a bad thing, or equate to failure.If he means something to you ...”That damn eyebrow went up again, and she tilted her head.He knew that trick—she was trying to make direct eye contact.
