George - Chapter Two: A Day at the Office

A little warning, George likes to use colorful language and will continue to do so throughout his story. :) Thanks for reading!

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“Did you just say you found Charlotte?” I was asking partly out of disbelief and partly because I was still having a hard time hearing him.

“Yeah! Well. . .not so much found. I wasn’t really looking for her. More like I ran into her.”

 

“At a bar?!” Of all the places. “So what, you saw her and went up to her?”

“Yeah. . .not so much. See, my teammates and I were sitting at a table having a drink, I mean it George, it was just one drink. Anyway, I was looking around the bar and I saw this blonde woman who was serving drinks and at first, I only saw her from behind. So I called her over and that’s when I realized that it was Charlotte.”

“Wait a minute! You tried to hit on our sister?!” One drink my ass.

“Like I said, I only saw her from behind! How was I supposed to know it was her? Believe me, I’d love to forget it.”

“Okay, so you go to a bar, that you really shouldn’t be at in the first place because you just got out of rehab for drinking, you see a blonde server across the bar, call her over so you can hit on her, which we won’t discuss how much you must have been drinking to not see that it was our sister, and then realize that you’ve run into Charlotte. Did I get it all?” I asked sarcastically.

He didn’t say anything and all I could hear was the music blaring through the phone. After several moments he spoke “. . .I think that’s right.”

I groaned and smacked my forehead. I would have loved to give him a piece of my mind but at that point, I was more interested in the specifics of Charlotte.

 

“So is Charlotte still around? Can I talk to her.”

“Yeah. . .I don’t think that’s a good idea. She wasn’t thrilled about seeing me and knowing how you tend to be, she probably isn’t up to talking to Mister Psychologist.”

“Damn it Trev, stop calling me that. What all did she say? What happened?”

“She walked over and I was about to say something that you shouldn’t say to your sister and when I looked up I realized it was her. I stood up and we stared at each other, not saying anything. One of my teammates made a comment about how she was hot and I about decked him. I mean, he was hitting on Charlotte!” I shook my head at the absurdity. It was okay for him in his drunken state to almost hit on his own sister, but for his teammate who wasn’t even related to her, that was crossing the line. “Once I got over it being her, I asked her what she was doing there, which she responded that she was serving drinks, of course. I asked her how long she had been here and she said she had been in Bridgeport for six years but had only been working at this bar for five months.”

“That’s great, Trev. Did you happen to ask her anything about why she left, why she hasn’t contacted any of us in six and a half years, why she let us all think she was dead? Or better yet, did you tell her that she crushed Mom’s heart when she left, hell, she crushed mine too. Did you find out any of those things?!” I was basically screaming into the phone at that point. 

“Um. . .no? And see. . .that’s why I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to talk to her. You seem really pissed and pissed Mister Psychologist isn’t the best combo.” I rolled my eyes and shook my head at the same time. I tried to gain control of my anger and continued to press Trev.

“So, do you know where she lives? What she’s been up to? Did you find out anything useful?” Getting info out of Trev was always hard but when he had been drinking and his thinking was impaired, it was like trying to swim through a pool of molasses. 

“She lives here, in the city, it’s actually in a somewhat decent area of the city. She’s been serving drinks and singing sometimes at some bars. That was about all I got out of her.” At least it seemed that she was okay. “We did talk about her coming to my place tomorrow night so we could catch up.”

I almost dropped the phone. “You got her to agree to go to your apartment to talk to her and you’re just now telling me?!”

“Relax, baby bro!”

“I’m going to leave here around noon tomorrow and I’ll be there sometime in the early evening.”

“Whoa! George, do you really think that’s a good idea? I mean, she agreed to talk to me. She might get pissed if you show up. Plus, don’t you have insane people to help, or something? I mean you can’t just leave, can you?” 

“What is it with you and Will calling people who seek counseling, insane or messed up? They’re no more messed up than you!” He started to say something but I cut him off. “I don’t have any more patients after noon tomorrow. I’m driving there after I see my last patient. I don’t care if I have to get through you and all your teammates, I am going to see Charlotte and I am going to talk to her. And unless you want to hear an earful from Mister Psychologist, I suggest you get your ass out of that bar.”

He didn’t say anything for a minute. I was sure I had pissed him off but at that point, I didn’t care. “I won’t stop you from seeing her, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let my baby brother tell me what to do. I don’t care if you have five Ph.D.’s and know everything about psychology; no one, not even you are going to tell me what to do. I’ll see you tomorrow night.” He hung up and I stood there holding the phone up to my ear replaying in my head what had just happened. I had blown up and that was the last thing I should have done. I should have done almost anything but that. 

I hung up and walked into the bedroom. I had an early patient and needed to get to bed so I could be sharp in the morning. Before I could go to bed though, I needed to pack a bag for the weekend. Tomorrow was Friday which meant I would be able to stay with Trev’s  at least one night. I finished packing and walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth. 

Why the hell had I gone off on Trev and why did I always get so angry when it came to him and Charlotte? It was like I couldn’t control my anger when it came to the two of them. I knew that anger wasn’t the way to get through to them but it was so hard when I had all of these bottled up feelings and no way of expressing them. Maybe I should seek some counseling when I got back, or at least find someone who would let me vent my frustrations out on them. I couldn’t do that with Mom since I never wanted to make her feel worse than she already felt. Will was thousands of miles away and was in his own little world.  I really had no one I could talk to. It was times like this that I really wished Dad was still here. He had always given great advice. 

The last father/son talk we had was when we took a family vacation at Paradise Island. I had been upset that some people made fun of the fact that I liked helping people. Something that it seemed my siblings still liked to do. At those times I tried to remember what Dad had said to me eight years ago.

“Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks, G. The world needs more people like you in it and less of the naysayers. Believe me, there will come a day when even your siblings may be glad that you’re the way you are.”

It sure didn’t seem that way. It seemed like my siblings were way more interested in still poking fun at me and what I did for a living.

I turned off the bathroom light and crawled into bed.  I expected to have trouble sleeping with everything that had happened with Charlotte and Trev but I must have been tired from everything else that had happened that day. I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I woke up to the sound of my alarm buzzing and I smacked the top of it to shut it up. I barely opened one eye and looked over at the clock. Was it six already? I yawned and thought about what I needed to do before work. I needed to get ready, make breakfast, look over my patient files for the morning, load the car and at some point I needed to call Mom and tell her I was leaving town for the weekend. At the thought of Mom I sat up and realized that I hadn’t told Mom that we knew where Charlotte was. I jumped out of bed and grabbed my phone. I saw that there was a text message from Trev.

Sorry about before. I shouldn’t have gotten pissed. 

I told Charlotte about you being at my place tomorrow night. She said it was fine, but don’t tell Mom. Not yet.

I didn’t like the thought of not telling Mom. She had been so worried about Charlotte that it seemed wrong not to tell her. I thought some more about it as I got ready. 

Maybe it would be better to hold off telling her, at least until I can get some answers from Charlotte.

I don’t want to get Mom’s hopes up and then have them squashed because Charlotte decided to run again.

I’ll at least wait until after I talk to Charlotte before talking to Mom. 

I ate my breakfast, looked over my patient files and then packed the car with the things I needed for work and my weekend bag. As I drove to the office, I couldn’t help but think about how in less than twelve hours, I was going to be seeing my sister who I hadn’t seen in six and a half years. I wondered what she looked like; was her hair long? Short? Trev had said it was blonde. Was she skinny? Too skinny? I had often worried about how she was living, if she was alive. I had so many questions and I hoped she would at least answer some of them. There was one that I really wanted her to answer. Why; why had she just left with no warning and without a care to how her leaving affected Mom, me, everyone. 

I pulled up to the office and tried to push the thoughts of Charlotte and Trev to the side. I needed to be focused and free from distractions while I saw the two patients I had this morning. I unlocked the front door to the office, walked in and turned the lights on. There wasn’t much to the place. It was an older building in town and I had gotten it for a decent price. It was honestly too big for what I needed but there weren’t very many affordable buildings for sale in Appaloosa so I was happy to have this space.

When you first entered the office, there was a waiting area and a desk that people could check in at. I had recently hired  someone to book appointments, check in patients and place files back after I had used them. I tried to do most of my work on my computer but I still liked to keep paper files just in case something happened with my computer.  Off of the waiting room there were two restrooms and then my office was behind a set of double doors. I was shocked when I had originally looked at the space that there was a whole wall of bookshelves. The realtor had told me that the previous owner had been a lawyer so he had had a ton of books. It hadn’t taken me long to fill most of them up with my own books, magazines, studies, and files.

I had my own desk and there were two chairs that sat in front of it for when patients first came to see me. I had tried to create a relaxing and welcoming environment. If a patient didn’t feel comfortable and relaxed, they were never going to open up to me, or anyone.

Off to the side there was a sitting area where I had a couch and a chair that was in front of a fireplace. I never understood why there was a fireplace in an office, but it had actually been a topic of conversation that had more than once gotten a patient to start talking, just enough to get a foot in the door.

I put the patient folders for the day on my desk and heard the front door open. 

“Good morning, Dr. Davila.” I turned around and Mrs. Greene was walking into my office.

“Good morning, Mrs. Greene. Did you have a good evening?”

“How many times do I have to tell you to call me Francis? And yes, I had a good evening. Mr. Greene and I had a nice, quiet dinner and then watched some show on the TV. I have no idea what it was but it was on one of those upper channels. You know, like two hundred and something. Anyway, I don’t know why we watched it, I mean, it wasn’t the greatest show. You would think with hundreds of channels we would be able to find something to watch but most nights it’s hard to find anything worth watching.” In the short time that Mrs. Greene had worked for me I had learned that she was a talker. She was one of the nicest ladies I had met, but if you let her, she would talk your ear off.

“I don’t understand it either, you’d think there would be more on TV. And as far as calling you Francis, my mother would scold me for being disrespectful if I called you anything but Mrs. Greene. So if you have an issue with it, you’ll have to talk to my mother.” I smiled at her and she chuckled.

“Well, I’m not one to argue with another woman about how she raised her children, especially when it’s obvious that yours did such a good job.” She looked back out into the waiting area. “How about I make some coffee for today’s patients and then, I’ll bring you a cup of hot tea?”

“I’d greatly appreciate it, Mrs. Greene.” She smiled at me and hurried out of the office to make some coffee and my tea.

I sat down at my desk and made some notes about the patients I was seeing that morning. A little before eight, Mrs. Greene brought me a cup of tea and soon after that my first patient arrived. I had been seeing this patient almost from the beginning of starting my practice here in town. They had grown up with parents who had a hard time expressing their feelings and often times, they had felt unloved, worthless, and that their parents were anything but proud of them. It had taken many months before they had felt comfortable enough to open up about their childhood. We had spent most of the first months, with them talking about their relationship with their parents as it was now. We had then slowly progressed to how that relationship made them feel and how it affected their behavior. We were now progressing into how what they felt as a child, the lack of love and encouragement they had felt, had influenced their behavior then and was continuing to do so now. We weren’t quite to that connection but I was hoping with them being more open to exploring their childhood, the connection would come.

We spent the hour first talking about how the week had gone since we had last met, if anything interesting had happened during the week, and then, as usual, the conversation changed to something that had happened with their parents. That opened the door to talk about their childhood. Each time, they were more open and revealed more about their past and each time I patiently listened and asked questions to help guide them. I could just tell them the answers but the whole point of counseling was that the patients discover themselves the answers, with guidance. It was often times frustrating for the patient, but every once in a while they would have a break through and it was like a light bulb went off. About five minutes before our time was up we chit-chatted about what they had planned the next week and then when our time was up, I walked them to the doors and they exited into the waiting room. Mrs. Greene was immediately offering them a cup of coffee to go. 

I spent the next hour copying notes I had taken during the first appointment, into my computer, reading up on a study that dealt with some of the issues that the first patient was working through, and looking over the file for the next patient. My second and last patient of the day was a newer patient. I had only met with them one time. They were like most new patients, closed, skeptical, not entirely sure why they were there but somehow knowing that they needed some kind of help. As Mrs. Greene showed them into the office, I motioned for them to sit on the couch near the fireplace. Not surprising, they looked confused. 

“Aren’t you going to sit at the desk and I sit in one of the chairs?”

“No, I usually only do that the first time I see a patient.”

“Oh. . .” They looked around and the sat down on the couch. I carefully sat down in the chair facing the couch and patiently waited for them to start a conversation.

“So, aren’t you supposed to ask me how I’m feeling or something?”

“Well, it’s pretty much up to you what we talk about.” I said as I relaxed into the chair.

“Hmm. . .I thought you were supposed to ask me how I felt, I tell you, you tell me what’s wrong with me, and then I’m fixed.”

“This is for you and about you. It’s up to you to share with me about yourself and that can be as much or as little as you want. But let me assure you that I’m here to listen, not to judge and what you say in this room is completely between you and me. We don’t even have to talk about yourself if you don’t want to. We could talk about the weather, how comfortable the couch is, even how nice the fire feels.”

I watched as they looked over at the fire that was in the fireplace and they got a quizzical expression on their face. “You know, now that you mention it, it’s kind of odd that there is a fireplace in an office building.”

“It is odd, isn’t it. . .?” I smiled and we started talking about the fireplace.

Once my second patient left, I copied my notes into my computer and looked over my appointments for Monday. Mrs. Greene came in and gave me the files that she had pulled for Monday’s patients and I packed them into my bag.

 

“Got any big plans this weekend?” She asked me.

“Actually, I’m going to see my brother.”

“Oh, well I’m sure that will be exciting. You’re going to see the one that’s a famous football player, right?  Not the famous writer. He lives far away, doesn’t he? So you’re going into the city? I wish Mr. Greene would take me into the city sometime. I know I’m an older lady but I still like some excitement in my life. But Mr. Greene would be happy to just sit at home and watch TV.”

 

“Yes, I’m going to see Trevor, the one that lives in the city.”

“Oh, well, that should be fun!” I listened to Mrs. Greene continue to talk as we walked out of the office and I locked the door.

“Do you need a ride home Mrs. Greene?” 

“Oh no! Look, there’s Mr. Greene now coming to pick me up. I do appreciate the offer though. Have a wonderful time with you r brother! I’ll see you Monday morning. Try not to work too much this weekend! Have some fun! Bye now!” I watched as she got in the car and then continued to talk to Mr. Greene. I waved as they drove away and watched as Mr. Greene drove down the street. I smiled as I thought about how Mr. Greene must be a very quiet man. I pulled out my cell phone and called Mom.

 

“Hi George, how has your day been?”

 

“It’s been good. I wanted to let you know that I’m going to stay with Trev this weekend. We talked last night and we hadn’t seen each other in a while so I thought I’d go see him.” I hated lying to her but I couldn’t tell her just yet why I was really going into the city.

“Oh! That sounds good. Will you be back Sunday?”

“Yeah, I should be back Sunday afternoon or night. Could you feed the cats while I’m away?”

“Sure! I’ll be happy to feed Parsley and Sage. Be careful. Tell Trev that he needs to visit soon.” 

 

I chuckled. “I had planned on it.” I said and smiled.

“Be careful! Love ya!”

“Love you too, Mom.”

I hung up and got in the car. As I pulled onto the main road I thought about how I was soon going to be seeing Charlotte and I didn’t know how I felt about it. One moment I was excited, the next pissed, and I even thought I felt sad.  I did know one thing; it was going to take every ounce of self-control to keep myself from going off on her. I took a deep breath and concentrated on the road and the drive to the city.