I scoffed, shaking my head again, and focused my gaze out the crack in the curtain. “I have a feeling that I’m not going to be one of your favorite patients,” I muttered, and to her credit, Dr. Blake laughed.
“You would be surprised how many of my favorite patients said that before becoming my favorite.”
“Yeah?” I asked, and Dr. Blake nodded.
“Yes.”
“Do you think something is wrong with me?”
She shook her head, making a note on her pad. “No, I don’t,” she said. “This is just procedure, Korbin. The fire department also supports these sessions.”
“Right,” I mumbled. “Of course they do.”
A figure passed by the window. Some random patient. And behind the patient was a woman dressed in aqua blue scrubs. The patient didn’t glance in, but the employee did, and she slowed down to peer in when she saw me. My eyes met hers, and a flicker of recognition crossed her features. All I could do, however, was stare back at her with my jaw slightly open. As soon as she’d been there, she was gone. I looked over at Dr. Blake, who had been watching me watch the woman in the window.
“Friend of yours?” she asked with mild curiosity. I stared at her, still trying to put the pieces together in my mind. It couldn’t have been her. Not here, not in Eagle River.
“She looks like someone I used to know,” I said softly. “That’s all.”
“Someone important to you?” Dr. Blake asked, and I knew I shouldn’t have said anything.
“Someone who used to be,” I said. “Until I broke her heart.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked kindly, and I shook my head.
“No. It wasn’t her anyway. She wouldn’t be in Eagle River; she hates it here.”
“I see,” said Dr. Blake, making another note on her pad. “Is there anything you’d like to discuss while you’re here?”
“Sorry, I didn’t have time to prepare for this,” I admitted with a scoff. “My friend didn’t tell me this was happening. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have shown up. I thought I was getting PT.”
“Not today. That’s later in the week.”
“So, I have to do both?”
Dr. Blake laughed. “Yes, Korbin, you have to do both. You have to heal your mindandyour body.”
I wanted to get pissed off, but what could I do? If I ever wanted to go back to work, these sessions were mandatory, and so be it. If we did nothing but stare each other down at each session until I was allowed back at the firehouse, that was fine with me. I had no intention of spilling my guts out on the table for Dr. Blake to sort through.
The session was only forty-five minutes long, but it felt like hours by the time Dr. Blake finally released me. Days. We hadn’t done much talking, and that was fine with me.
“Same time next week,” Dr. Blake said, walking with me to the front desk. When I spotted Hansen still sitting in the waiting room seat, he flushed and looked away from me, embarrassed. He’d known the entire time and didn’t tell me.
“You jackass,” I said as Dr. Blake bid me goodbye. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me I had a head shrinking session today.”
“I knew if I did, you wouldn’t come,” Hansen said with a shrug, tossing the magazine he’d been thumbing through back onto the side table. “And it wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“Worse,” I muttered, hobbling over to the coat rack to struggle to put mine on. “You’re right. I wouldn’t have come if I’d known.”
“Well, look, now it’s over,” Hansen said, reaching over to help me with my coat. I swatted his hand away, glaring.
“When do I have to come back for PT?”
“The office will call you.” Hansen stepped forward and held the door open for me, and as I started to stumble through it, I glanced back once more over my shoulder, once again spotting the woman I’d seen through the window. She was behind the desk now, leaning over the receptionist to read something on the computer, and she didn’t see me staring. In fact, I could barely make out her features from where I stood.
“Someone you know?” Hansen asked, and I shook my head and moved forward.
“Impossible. The woman she looks like wouldn’t be caught dead back in Eagle River. My mind playing tricks on me, I guess. A lookalike.”
