AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No.” I shut the refrigerator. “You mentioned it to me once on the phone.” I twist the cap off and set it in front of her.
She’s quiet for a long moment, and when she rolls her shoulders back, I think she’s going to start eating. But she asks a question instead.
“Is there a room I can use for some privacy?”
My spine stiffens. “For what?”
“If you must know, I have a therapy appointment that starts in fifteen minutes, and I’d like some privacy for it.”
“Oh.” I don’t even know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that.
She reads my reaction wrong and balls her hands into fists. “This is my monthly session, and I want to keep it. I need to talk to someone. And she’s already told me that she’ll be out of office for the month of December.”
“Valentine—”
“I won’t tell her anything about you, so you don’t have to worry—”
She cut me off, so I return the favor. “Shorty.” That shuts her up. “You can always talk to me.” I can see her retort building, but I keep talking. “But of course you can have your therapy. If you’d told me sooner, we could’ve flown back so you could go in person.”
“It’s always been virtual,” she murmurs, uncurling her fists. “You don’t care?”
“If being fucked in the head wasn’t part of my job requirement, I’d go myself.” I grab the root beer she hasn’t touched and take a sip. “You can use my office down here if you want, but the one upstairs is fair game. You can set up shop in there for work or therapy or whatever you want. And if you need anything else, like screens or a standing desk, just ask.”
“Um, thank you.” She slides off the stool. “I’ll go set up, then.”
She stacks one of the boxes of food on top of her laptop, then grabs the bottle of root beer I took a sip out of and heads upstairs.
When I hear the upstairs office door close, I walk down to my office and retrieve my own laptop.
Back in the kitchen, I sit where Val just was and launch my security system.
As I take the first bite of my gyro, the camera feed comes to life. And I watch as Valentine sits behind the desk, readying herself for therapy.
CHAPTER37
Val
I pressthe little lever under the chair, and the seat lowers until it’s at a comfortable height.
The office is nice. I looked through it earlier, and the heavy dark-stained furniture is very Dominic. But the leather office chair is comfortable, and there’s a place to plug my laptop in right on the desk, so it’ll suit me just fine.
For a moment, I think about leaving my cold bottle right on the desktop, but the craftsmanship of the desk is beautiful, so I start opening drawers, looking for a coaster.
I don’t find one, but I find a blank notebook, which will work.
After turning on my laptop, I click the link to join the web session.
There’s still a couple of minutes before we’ll start, and I glance past my computer to the office door. I’m tempted to go lock it, but I have to trust that Dominic won’t just walk in during my session. Not to mention I can’t imagine a locked door would do much if he really wanted to get in.
My screen shows my face looking back at me as I wait for the doctor to join.
I tighten my ponytail.
I shift in my seat.
I take another sip of root beer.
I’m always a little nervous before our appointments because therapy is never exactly fun, but today I feel extra stressed.
