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“I’m well aware,” I huffed, getting out of the car and slamming the door once I was on my feet.
Trini got out and joined me. “Based on that little tantrum you just had, I’d say you fully plan on sleeping with your husband. Good for you.”
“IfI show up and go through with it.” I stuck my tongue out and she laughed.
“You will. I’m not the least bit worried about you showing up.”
She looped her arm through mine. “Now let’s go fuck this food up. I’m starving.”
“This is a tasting. Not a meal.”
“And it’s Teyon Miller. I can taste enough to make it a meal. Her food is so damn good I have to seize the moment. Plus the hubby said spare no expense, right? I intend to fully embrace the experience to know that the menu will be the very best for my bestie.”
She had a valid point.
A very selfishly motivated point, but still valid.
ELEVEN
elias
The womanI was sitting with today, Dr. Olivia Temple, greeted me with a warm smile. Surely she had read my file. I’d already signed off for her to request it from the most recent therapist I had been seeing.
Dr. Candice Harrington.
Consistently, once every three months, I sat in her office and allowed her to question me. I gave clinical responses to all of her questions because I’d been doing this long enough to know exactly what to say not to pique any concerns. She robotically moved through her praise and concerns and wrote the prescription for my medication. Lithium extended release, six hundred milligrams, twice a day. Always a three-month supply and requested a check-in a week prior to the prescription expiring. That had been my life for the past three years.
The first year after we lost Lucas, I spiraled. I stopped taking my meds, my cycles came every couple weeks, and a lot of people got hurt. Physically and emotionally. I was out of control and driven by not only my emotions but my disorder. I drank too much which I cocktailed with any drugs I could get my hands on and eventually I crashed.
I wasn’t sure how it happened because the memory of the night I ended up in the hospital psychiatric ward was a bit of a blur. The recovery period that followed was still very visual in my head. They kept me for thirty days. Ez had been notified and he made the arrangements that placed me in a discreet private facility.
A few days before I was discharged someone on staff notified my brother who paid a lot of money to erase any evidence that I had been there. He begged me to come home. I refused. A few weeks later I stumbled upon an underground fight club. Stabilized and no longer having alcohol or drugs to get lost in, I began fighting.
Every night, I beat the crap out of anyone who stepped in the ring with me but not until I allowed them to inflict as much pain as I could bear. That was how I’d met Reno and why he offered me a job. He later found out who my family was and thought keeping me around would be some sort of privilege. One that would offer him an advantage. I didn’t give a damn about Reno beyond appreciating that he offered me a distraction from the very thing I had been running from.
My family.
For three years I had been stable. My cycles happened but they were manageable. I could feel and acknowledge the shifts. I knew when my moods would change and was able to keep the highs and lows contained to short periods when they happened and the spans between them stretched for months at a time. Until now. I wasn’t so sure I could continue to remain as level as I had in the past. Which was why I was here.
“Mr. Omari…”
“Yes.”
Her smile expanded and she extended a hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Same.”
It wasn’t a fucking pleasure but I wouldn’t mess up her day. This was my issue not hers. Hopefully she could help. In a few weeks I would be married to a woman I was trying to protect from my darkness. She would be living in my home, hopefully sleeping in my bed, and that meant she would be exposed to all of me.
“Please, come in, have a seat.” She motioned to the office behind her and I did as instructed. Walked in, bypassed the sofa, and elected to sit in the armchair across from the one she settled into.
“So, I read your file. Thank you for that.”
I lifted my chin in acknowledgment and she continued. “I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary or alarming and you have another month and a half left with your current prescription so would you like to tell me why you’re here today?”
No.
Not particularly.
