He really…wouldn’t…
Sure, the human had threatened him before. And Harlow definitely did want to fight him, at one point, just for fun. Yet…somehow…he just knew Harlow would never purposely hurt him. More than that…he knew if things went south again, the human wouldn’t leave him behind… He would come save him. He could…trust Harlow.
“He’s really not your boyfriend?”
Having looked off as he’d gotten lost in thought, Foxx blinked and peered back up at the man. “He’s…not.”
Foxx glanced away, blankly staring at the large mirror over the row of sinks. He wasn’t lying… Harlow wasn’t his boyfriend, nor would he ever be…
Foxx’s stomach dropped at the thought, followed immediately by his heart racing in sheer fucking panic. Because, for a brief second, he’d not only felt this overwhelming sense of disappointment, he’d also seen it clearly reflected in his eyes in the mirror. And it was not something he could or should feel. Not with this.
Harlow wasn’t his… But did he…maybe…want him to be?
Foxx swallowed hard as his gaze locked on his own eyes in the mirror again. Panic, hope, disappointment, sadness…more hope… The emotions flicked through too fast for him to even fully feel them.
Fuck a duck! He couldn’t do this. He really couldn’t. Harlow was not someone he could do any of whatever the bloody hell ‘this’ was with.
No matter what the man had done, how he treated him…Foxx couldn’t do this.
No, he refused to let himself do this. Because no matter what he felt…Harlow…wasn’t someone he could have. Harlow wasn’t someone anyone could have. He didn’t belong to anyone, and likely didn’t want to.
Don’t go there, Foxx, he begged himself.Don’t stupidly set yourself up for pain. Haven’t you done that enough times in your life already?
The psychiatrist’s practice was in the city of Bane, thirty minutes away from the Inner Village—the gated area where he and Foxx lived.
Pulling into the parking lot, Harlow eyed the area as he parked. Buildings lined the front and left side of the lot, ranging from a hair salon to a convenience store, to quite a few boutiques.
The multi-level buildings to the left were obviously office buildings. To the right of the lot was a forested area. He was pretty sure the lot backed up to Bane Forest, the forest the city was named after.
For 2pm on a Wednesday, the place was…packed. He ended up having to park in a far-off spot, right next to the trees. So, of course, the building he was looking for was one of the multi-story ones on the far left.
Sighing, he got out and headed over. The building was beige, squarish, and looked like every other multi-level doctors’ office he’d seen. There was even a large sign in the grass in front with a whole list of names followed by Ph.D..
Pushing open the door and walking in, he’d quickly discovered that the inside was just as beige as the outside.
Harlow followed the signs on the wall up. And getting off the elevator on floor three, he found the office of Wes B. Ackerman, Ph.D. only a few steps away.
Taking a deep breath, in an attempt to kill his irritation, Harlow turned the knob on the frosted door and walked in.
Unlike the outside of the building and the hallway, Ackerman’s office—at least his waiting room—was various shades of navy blue and light grays. The walls were a light navy, and the carpet a geometric gray pattern. The geometric shapes continued in the artwork on the walls. With plush blue cushions, the chairs and couches in the room were black framed.
The receptionist, who was sitting behind a white L-shaped reception desk, looked up when he entered. She smiled and asked, “Name?”
Harlow grimaced. “Harlow Blackmore.”
“Ah, first time?”
He grunted.
Her smile didn’t waver, even with his non-response. “I’ll need your ID and insurance card. Let me just find you in here.”
Harlow reached into one of the inner pockets of his floor length winter jacket, and pulled out his wallet. He didn’t bother taking out either card, because he had a feeling he wasn’t going to need them.
Smile still in place, the woman looked down and started typing on her computer. Her typing stopped as her smile finally turned into a frown.
“Odd,” she mumbled to herself, before hesitantly looking back up and saying, “Apologies… I don’t need either of those… Umm, please be seated…the doctor will be right with you.”
Yep… Would be bad for them to scan his ID when he and Tony didn’t want anyone to know he was there.
