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Gemma was starting to think that Tyler Hardigan might be a good candidate to pass along to a colleague who could spend more time delving into what was clearly deep confusion about appropriate interpersonal interaction.
“Well, we can’t just flip a switch, Tyler,” she explained. “This is going to require you to really open up in ways that may not be super comfortable for you at first. For example, maybe we can discuss why you chose to come to our first session in disguise.”
The man looked down and remained quiet for several seconds before responding, his eyes still on the carpet in front of him.
“I just need to you to fix me, Doctor,” he insisted quietly. As he continued to speak, his voice got louder and more intense. “That’s why I came here. I signed up with you so that you could make me better. That way, I can go out this weekend and get the girl. I don’t have time for more than one session of ‘work.’ This needs to happen today.”
Tyler was getting agitated, and Gemma sensed that she needed to tread carefully. For the first time since the start of the session, she felt a hint of fear creep into her system. She wanted to make clear that his needs weren’t realistic but doubted he’d react well. Instead, she decided that the best course of action was to simply get through the session and find a long-term solution for Tyler that didn’t involve regular appointments with her.
“Let’s see what we can do,” she told him, maintaining the smooth, controlled voice that TV producers told her was one of her best attributes. “I’m going to offer you an exercise that I want you to implement in your everyday interactions, particularly with women you find interesting. Then I’ll have a colleague of mine check in with you to see how you're progressing.”
“Will the exercise make this girl go out with me?” he wanted to know.
But before she could answer, his face—to the extent that she could see it—screwed up in frustration.
“Wait,” he said, “did you say a colleague would check in with me?”
“Yes, just to see how things are going—.”
“I don’t want somecolleague,” he spat. “I came to you because you’re supposed to be the best.You’rethe TV psychiatrist. If you can’t fix me, who can? And it seems like you don’t care!”
“That’s not true, Tyler,” she insisted.
He stood up suddenly. His hands were squeezed into fists, and his whole body was tense.
“You don’t understand me,” he barked, “you don't want to help. You were supposed to be different, but you’re just like the others.”
“Let’s calm down, Tyler,” Gemma said, still trying to maintain an air of professional detachment but finding herself falling well short. “Getting angry won’t fix you. We need to work together on this.”
“No,” he told her, fuming. “You had your chance. You’re a fake!”
He reached over to the end table beside his chair and snapped up his phone from the large quartz crystal bowl that she’d received as a gift and now asked her patients to put their phones in for the duration of their session. Then, after staring at the bowl for a second, he picked it up too.
Gemma felt that earlier hint of fear fully flower. She tried to hide it as she spoke calmly, still staying seated so as not to escalate the situation.
“Please put that down, Tyler. It was a gift and it’s very expensive.”
His face contorted even more than before.
“Sorry to mess with your fancy stuff,” he snarled, “Miss fancy doctor!”
“That’s not what I meant,” she said quickly.
“You’re a fraud. You don’t deserve to be famous,” he seethed, then paused before adding, “you deserve to pay.”
He stepped forward, the quartz bowl cupped in his hand. Gemma, terror filling her insides, scrambled to get out of her chair, but he was too fast.
By the time she stood up, he was already on her.
CHAPTER ONE
Jessie Hunt sat in her favorite spot on the couch, waiting for her bodyguard to talk.
The security expert, Grover Nix, had originally wanted to meet with her, Ryan, and Hannah over the weekend, but Ryan insisted on waiting until mid-morning on Monday to give her the weekend to recover. After all, she’d only been released from the hospital last Friday after slamming her head into the side of a pool while trying to stop a serial killer from murdering her next intended victim.
Jessie thought he was being overly cautious but said nothing as she watched Grover confer with his second-in-command, Rufus Harrington. Her much younger sister, Hannah, sat beside her on the couch. Ryan was in the kitchen, keeping himself busy by getting everybody glasses of water.
Jessie felt strangely calm as she waited, which was unusual for her these days, considering all the stressors she was currently dealing with. There was the warning from her neurosurgeon, Dr. Varma, that she’d suffered a second concussion in six months in the pool incident. According to Varma, she was lucky to have avoided Second Impact Syndrome, a condition in which a person has another concussionbefore completely recovering from the first one. SIS could lead to rapid brain swelling, seriously increasing the chance of death.
