Page 168 of Should Our Stars Collide

“Really.”

“Yup.”

Ash drums his fingers on the doorframe. “I believe another therapist would be more suitable. Someone…non-biased.”

“No, it has to be you,” Kieran insists. “Only you. I wouldn’t tell anyone else.”

Jesus fucking Christ, Kieran really knows how to go for the jugular.

Conceding defeat, Ash steps aside. “Come on in.”

The grin returning full-force, Kieran strides into the office, then proceeds to sprawl himself across the sofa like he’s getting ready for aLOTRmarathon.

God give me strength.

Ash walks towards his chair with the air of someone heading to the courtroom.‘I now sentence you to a lifetime of blue balls and longing.’

Maybe it’s time hefinds himself a therapist too, though it probably wouldn’t do much. It’s not as if he doesn’t know what he should do—the exact opposite of what he’s been doing for weeks. A shock collar might be more effective.

“How—” He cuts himself off. ‘How can I help you’ leaves too much room for ambiguous interpretation, which Kieran would definitely take advantage of. So he settles on a hopefully innocent, “What would you like to discuss?”

He needn’t have bothered.

“I wanna talk about my love life,” Kieran announces smugly. “You see, there’s someone I like a lot who’s been giving me a headache?—”

“No.”

Kieran blinks, taken aback. “No?”

“Pick something else.”

“Why?”

Because I’mthisclose to saying ‘fuck it’ and doing anything you ask me to.

“Because I reserve the right to refuse service when I feel uncomfortable with something.” That much is true, though he’s never had to apply that right, until now.

Kieran pouts, then pouts harder, probably thinking he’s being cute and that Ash will crack.

Well, heiscute, and Ash can detect a hairline fracture in the wall he’s put up, but that’s neither here nor there.

“Wuss,” Kieran complains when he senses this tactic will get him nowhere. “Fine. I wanna talk about my childhood.”

Ash groans—internally. Here goes hoping Kieran would get frustrated and give up. Ash didn’t actually expect him to pick a different topic. Sure, he could refuse to continue the session completely, but…there’s a chance, albeit small, that Kieran really wants to discuss something important. And unless he’s going to make something up, it’s also a way to learn a little more about him. And Ash does want to know more, no matter how hard he tries to convince himself that’snot the case.

“Alright. We can do that.” He shows his palms before folding his hands on his thigh. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Kieran’s not ready. In fact, he keeps glancing at the door as if he can’t decide whether he should bolt or not. He clearly didn’t think this through.

Just when Ash thinks he’s going to call it quits, Kieran speaks.

“I guess you could say I was always full on as a kid.”

Okay, so they’re actually doing this. Good. Means that Ash can switch to therapist-mode. Or try to.

“I can imagine,” he says, making sure Kieran can detect the soft affection in the words.

Given how he smiles, shy and a little pleased, he got it alright.