“I’m not going to call him, by the way.” I may have been a little defensive. But, I didn’t think I would, even if I was curious. We had literally nothing else to talk about.

Okay, so maybe Mali was right.

“Mhmm.” She nodded yes with her lips jutted out sarcastically. The deep wrinkles on her bronzed skin made her look extra-serious. I knew she was mostly teasing and she was also right about him. She’d never liked Brien, and even cut off the electricity in the lobby when he came to see me the first time after our breakup. In her defense, I was crying, and he was accusing me of something that I couldn’t even remember anymore. That must’ve meant I was innocent, right?

Truth was, I wasn’t as sad as everyone thought I should be after we broke up. And another truth was, I’d used him to fill something missing inside of me. That’s what most relationships actually boiled down to.

Mali interrupted my sour memories of Brien. “We have a walk-in,” she said.

Her back was hunched so she could see the little security television screen. I couldn’t make out whether it was a man or a woman, but I knew Elodie had just started on her two-thirty appointment, and we were the only two working until four. Two more therapists, Kandace and Joanie, would be working the evening shift, which meant I wouldn’t have fresh towels in the morning, because the two of them did the bare minimum when it came to closing. Again, the damn towels.

“I’ll take the walk-in.” I jumped up. “I don’t have any more appointments today and I really don’t want to fold any more towels.”

I pushed through the curtain in the lobby to find Kael walking around the small space, almost pacing. There were only a few chairs, and along with the front desk, furniture dominated the entire lobby space. I watched him walk back and forth before I moved past the curtain. He was wearing gray sweats and a gray T-shirt. Seeing him in normal clothes meant that he’d gotten his stuff from whoever had the key to his truck.

“Hey,” I greeted Kael. The Thai food Mali brought us for lunch was now jumbled with nerves in my belly.

“Hi.”

We stood there, enveloped by the thick smell of incense and the dim lights of the lobby. The old PC tower on the floor hummed between us.

“Is everything okay?” As I asked, it dawned on me that he might be there for a reason.

“Yeah, yeah. I came to get a massage, actually. I didn’t know if you had time or not.” He held up his hands.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Do you have time?” His voice was soft, an unsure question.