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“Why didn’t you go into acting Lydia? Also, you could get away with so much more if you’d just use your evil lying powers for yourself,” Michael said sounding bored.
“What’s wrong?” Taylor asked, looking at me curiously.
“We have to do an emergency photoshoot,” I said covering the speaker with my hand a little. “But none of our models can make it.”
“I could help,” he said, realization dawning in his eyes.
“You are just as good as any model,” I said meaning it. I went back to speaking on the phone, “Do you think my husband could do it?”
“You owe me, Lyds.”
“Wow, that’s great, we’ll be there as soon as we can.”
“Stay safe,” Michael said and hung up.
“I’m so sorry to do this, but we’re going to have to leave. Maybe we can get together some other time?” I said apologetically, trying to not show how excited I was with my deception.
“I understand.” Mr. Hayes sighed. “Your work is important to you, I’m glad my son supports it.”
“We’ve haven’t even been here and hour and you’re already kicking us out?” His mother asked, a bit of her frustration slipping out from her casual tone.
“Hana,” his grandfather said, stopping her from going on any longer, “we’ve taken enough of the happy couple’s time.”
“We’ll just have to come back some other day,” Hana said it like the threat it was.
Taylor and I saw all three of them to the door. I kept on smiling. I shook Mr. Hayes’ and Ikari’s hand but wasn’t offered anything from Hana. I wouldn’t have accepted it anyway. When I shut the door, I let my face fall. My cheek ached from holding up such a forced smile for so long.
“At least that’s over.” I looked over to Taylor who was stuck in place in the foyer, shaking and breathing so hard and fast. “Taylor?” I walked over to him. I reached out to touch him, but he flinched away. I reached down and tapped his wrist once. That let me get a bit closer, but it didn’t snap him out of it. He was having a panic attack. I recognized it having had a few small ones in college but nothing this bad. I never really learned how to deal with them either. I used to just take long showers until I calmed down. I doubted I could get Taylor to move without toppling over. He had his eyes shut so tightly it looked like he was straining.
I started rubbing circles in Taylor’s palm, hoping to bring him back to me. “Tell me what you need me to do.” I said softly, hoping he could hear me. He seemed to curl in on himself, which at first, I thought meant he was getting worse. But he pulled out his phone and handed it to me.
I opened it and looked around. Not sure what he wanted me to do. I checked his texts and saw the only contact other than me and his grandfather was called Tupp (Therapist) and thenthe mouse emoji. Whether this is what he meant or not I called this Tupp, hoping they could talk me through this.
“Taylor?” A woman with an incredibly high voice answered the phone.
“Sorry, I’m Lydia, his wife?”
“Oh dear, what’s the problem? I’m Dr. Tupp, his therapist.”
“His parents showed up and I got them to leave, but now he’s having a panic attack and I don’t know how to help.” I got it all out in one breath.
“Both his parents?” She sounded genuinely worried, as well as a little angry in a way that felt wrong for a therapist, which confirmed I was never letting them back into this house as long as I lived here.
“Yeah. What can I do?”
“Repeat after me dear,” she said, and I did.
“Taylor,” I began softly, “what do we do first?”
“We breathe,” he said unevenly though still rapid breaths. I began taking deep breaths in and out until he began to follow my pattern. Soon we were breathing in sync.
“What do you feel?”
“Your hand in mine. The hardwood under my feet. Cold from the door that was just open.”
“What do you hear?”
A small wobbly smile appeared. “Your voice.”
