Page 21 of Taming a Menace

I still had a tiny bit of hope that I could change. Plus, I wanted her to know the whole me so that she wouldn’t be blindsided down the line once I made her fall in love. The rest of me wanted her to forget everything that happened that night at the club, including seeing me if she had to.

I pushed through the doors of the clinic. The lobby was empty just the way I liked it. I didn’t need anyone trying to have small talk with me while I waited to get my head shrunk. I wasn’t in the mood to chit chat. After signing myself in, I sat down and put my backpack next to me.

I’d made my baby some chicken parmesan with linguine. For dessert, I made some miniature cheesecakes since my mom had been talking about how bad she was craving cheesecake.

“Mr. Glover.”

I didn’t have to wait long before someone called my name. It wasn’t Iyla this time. I drew my brows together wondering what I was in for. I felt like the thing I had been dreading was coming to fruition right before my eyes.

After Friday night, Iyla probably realized that I was too much for her to handle.

I couldn’t blame her for not wanting anything to do with me.

I just hoped that it didn’t mean I was being released from their services altogether.

I needed this to work. Finishing therapy in that designated timeframe was the main thing that stood between me and my freedom.

Deep down, I was excited by the idea of someone other than Iyla being my therapist. That meant that I could pursue her without having to hide it. All those things ran through my mind as I stood from my seat and followed the petite brunette down the hall.

I expected her to veer off somewhere, but instead she walked me straight to Iyla’s office door.

A sense of relief washed over me when she knocked on the door and waited for Iyla to answer it.

She didn’t even realize it, but she’d just shown me something useful.

Whether I would use it to my advantage was left to be determined.

I heard my baby’s sweet voice giving us permission to enter right before the girl opened the door.

“Step right in, Mr. Glover. You have a good day now.”

“Thank you. You too,” I said as I bypassed the girl to walk into Iyla’s office.

She closed the door behind me before Iyla spoke.

“Mr. Glover, come on in and have a seat wherever you feel most comfortable.”

I didn’t bother fighting the urge to get as close to her as possible. The couch was nice, but the best seats in the house were right in front of my girl.

“How are you doing today, Ms. Iyla?” I asked as I took my seat.

“Pretty good.”

She never looked up from her computer screen as she replied. In fact she had yet to look away from the screen since I’d gotten here. Either what she was doing was important as hell or she was avoiding eye contact with me. I was willing to bet money on the latter.

“How has your day been? I would ask you about your weekend, but I already know the answer to that.”

“Do you?” I asked.

“I recall an instance where you lost your temper. Care to tell me about that?” she quizzed.

“Someone disrespected someone that I care about, and I stepped in.”

“Are you often compelled to defend others?”

“If they can’t defend themselves, yes,” I answered.

“Has there been a time when you needed someone to defend you and that didn’t happen?” she asked.

“Look at me. What do you think?”

“I’m sure you haven’t always been a big, scary guy.”

“You think I’m big and scary?”

I needed to know if Iyla was actually scared of me, or if this was just part of her line of questioning. I’d actually been wondering this since the night at the club. She’d given me the perfect opening to ask.

“That’s beside the point, Mr. Glover,” she countered.

“You’re right. Mr. Keywan Glover doesn’t have to worry about that for the sake of his therapy, but Key wants to know how Moon feels for the sake of his pursuit of her.”

“Do you feel like these are two different people? I need to know things like that for the sake of your therapy.”

“I know they’re not, but I need you to consider that as true so that you open yourself up to the possibilities.”

“OK, good. I was beginning to think that we might have more work ahead of us than I initially anticipated.”

“For therapy or?” I asked.

“Yes. Well for both I guess.”

“So you haven’t decided to completely freeze me out?”

“That’s to be determined.”

“I can work with that.” I nodded, feeling a little more confident about her.

“Now let’s see if you can work on answering a direct question, Mr. Glover.”

I reached down and unzipped my backpack and placed Iyla’s lunch in front of her before responding to what she’d said.

“I like when you get authoritative, Ms. Iyla. Can you repeat the question?”

“What’s this?” she asked.

“I made chicken parmesan and cheesecake.”

“Key, you can’t keep bringing me food.”

“Key is trying to be your man, so yes he can. Keywan is your patient and knows there are boundaries.”

She narrowed her eyes and shook her head as I pushed the containers closer to her. I reached back into the bag and removed one of the mini cheesecakes to eat while I was there. As I removed the lid from my cheesecake, I thought about something.

“Y’all have a microwave here, or does daddy need to get you one for your office?” I asked, looking around the room for a spot for my baby’s new microwave.

“Yes, we have a microwave in the break room,” she confirmed.

“The second part of the question still stands. Do you need a microwave in here, so you don’t have to leave out of here to warm your food up? I see a couple of good spots to put one.”

She smiled, which was exactly the response I wanted.

“No, I do not need a microwave in here.”

“OK, well do you want one? I’m asking because I’m not going to keep eating in front of you. You have to join me.”

“I think I’ve already told you that this is not my lunch hour.”

“You have. I’m sure I’ve already told you I wasn’t trying to hear that. I’m not going to keep talking unless you eat. You need time to decompress after our dates.”

She took a deep breath and leaned forward on her desk. “This is not a date, Mr. Glover.”

“I love it when you call me that.” I grinned.

“Stop deflecting, Mr. Glover, and answer the question I asked you before you went off into a tangent.”

“Can you repeat the question? It got lost somewhere in our exchange.”

“Purposely I’m sure. I asked if there has been a time when you felt like someone should have defended you, and they didn’t.”

“Possibly.” I shrugged.

“Care to expound on that?” She pushed.

“I mean I can’t think of one example in particular, but as you said I haven’t always been this big scary guy.

I’m the youngest of three boys. My brothers used to kick my ass all the time.

Nothing crazy, just roughhousing and horseplay.

Things like that. I’ve always been a mama’s boy, and they hated that.

They still do, but they accept that I’m the favorite.

I don’t think they scarred me or anything like that.

If anything, they helped to toughen me up. ”

“Was there a time when you felt like you weren’t tough enough?” she asked.

“I mean I was a little crybaby, but I was a kid. Kids cry.”

“So is that a yes or no?”

“No, I don’t think that was an issue as much of me just speaking up for myself you know. Defending myself verbally was an issue.”

“But now that you’re so big and scary you don’t have to worry about that,” she noted.

“It hardly ever gets to that, so I guess not.”

“But before when you were growing up, you didn’t always speak up for yourself?”

“When I was much younger, yes. Not to take away from my family because if I would have said something, I’m sure they would have done what needed to be done. Sometimes I just feel like someone should have noticed something was different about me and tried to figure out why.”

“What brought about the change?”

“Life I guess.” I shrugged, hoping my answer was sufficient.

“There has to be more to it than that. This is a safe space, Mr. Glover. Feel free to speak your mind. Nothing said here leaves this room.”

“Really?” I asked, leaning forward and putting my elbows on her desk.

“Yes. It’s unlawful for me to discuss what we talk about in here.”

“Well in that case, there’s something else I want to talk about.”

“What is it?”

“There’s this woman I’ve been seeing. She’s so pretty and fine.

If you ever saw her smile you would know why I’m so smitten with her.

For three whole years, I laid up on a hard ass bunk trying to imagine her lying next to me.

I fell in love with her eyes every night as I fell asleep.

That girl was just in my imagination until I had the misfortune of being put in therapy.

Life brought her back to me. I can’t let her go now.

I’m even more crazy about her now than I was the day we met.

My heart literally pounds every time I enter a room that she’s in.

Not only is she beautiful, but she’s smart.

She’s giving me a hard time, but she’s coming around. ”

“Interesting,” she said, scribbling something on her notepad.

“Are you dating again?”

“I’m not at liberty to discuss my personal life.”

“So I’m supposed to have one sided conversations and tell you all of my darkest secrets while you just absorb it all? That doesn’t make sense. How are we going to connect if we can’t have an open conversation?”

“You’re helping me to understand you through conversation about you and your life, not mine.”

“Right. I guess I can get that. Well you might not want to tell me anything about you, but let me tell you about my weekend. Is that OK?”

“Absolutely.” She nodded.