Some of those people were up at this alien hour, in this fluorescent white space. In a lunch room that could have fed two hundred, three or four pairs or groups of people sat talking. There was a wide expanse of open seats and benches where the only person who might approach and overhear was a janitor.

“Do you have someone staying here?” I asked. “Is that too personal a question?”

“No. But I come here for some of my other patients.”

“Ah.”

“This is close to home, and it’s reasonably close to you, you said?” he asked. When I nodded, he nodded as well. “I don’t go to restaurants, so I don’t know what places we could meet at. With most of my patients, they have places they prefer, or I’m going to them because they work high-pressure schedules. Much as you do. If you prefer anything different—”

“This is good,” I said. “Just—anything except an office or actual hospital room.”

“Good. If it’s alright, I’m going to grab a coffee.”

“I’ll grab something too,” I said.

It was kind of awkward to follow him through checkout and either make small talk or be silent, so I took a bit more time than necessary.

We sat. The table was slightly damp, having been recently wiped down, and I used my jacket sleeve to wipe it dry before pulling the jacket off and draping it over my lap. I wore a sweater-knit tube top over a button-up collared shirt—the fabric of the shirt was too thin on its own, because ninety percent of the shirts on the racks were, and the sweater part of it at least kept things modest while dressing things up in a similar-ish way to wearing a vest. Jeans worn with the legs pulled down over boots kept things more casual.

“I’m sorry to have you wake up early,” I said.

“It’s not too bad, today. It being this dark out makes it feel later than it is—I had a year where I had three patients I saw at five in the morning, because it was the only way to fit around their shifts. Six-forty-five is nothing compared to that. Is this an emergency, or something between an emergency and a regular appointment?”

I had to think on that for a second before deciding. “The second one.”

“I had that feeling. Is it okay if we structure this like an ordinary session?”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

“Okay. We’ve met for two sessions now, laying groundwork—”

His polite way of saying we hadn’t made much progress.

“—and as part of that groundwork, we set out goals and tasks for the week. It hasn’t been a full week, but I’m interested to hear how this is going.”

“Uh, two components to the homework. Tracking my mood over the course of the past few days, and tracking my outbursts.”