Love Therapy (Stanton Falls #2) (6 page)

Nick hesitated for a
brief moment before coming out with his question.  

“Dad, do you think I am
shallow?”

“Shallow?  I
wouldn’t say that.  Maybe a few years back but not now.  Definitely
no.  What on God’s green earth makes you ask that.”

Nick got up and went
towards the kitchen to grab a cola from the fridge, grabbing one for his father
as well.  

“At the job, I
instructed HR to hire an on staff counselor as part of my expanded business
benefits, pretty much like you have at the factory.  So I stop by her
office last Tuesday to buy her lunch as a welcome to the company and she sort
of … gave me some advice about myself.  She basically said that I use
money to keep people around me.”

“Come on son you know
that isn’t true.”

“That’s what I thought
at first.  She even singled out Aaron working for me as an example of how
I use money to keep friends.  I thought it was completely ludicrous until
I thought more about it and I’ve found myself thinking that maybe she is right dad.”

His father waived off
the drink he was being offered.

“Your mother only lets
me have one of those a day now so I’m saving it for later.”

“Wow dad, you’re truly
whipped aren’t you?”

“I may be but sometimes
giving in on those really unimportant things is what makes a marriage work.
 Now back to you son.  Sit down.  You are a good young man.
 Listen, you could have slacked off after school but you didn’t.  You
know we’ve got enough money where you didn’t have to do a thing for the rest of
your life and you’d still have money from us to give your kids.  But you
didn’t sit on that.  You decided to start your own business.  And why
did you do that?”

“I wanted to have
something of my own.  Something that I did myself.”

“That may be the reason
you tell everyone, but those of us that know you know the real reason you did
that was because of your friend.  He was in a bad place and you started
that business and gave him a key role to help him get through that time.
 You didn’t do that for you.  You did that for him.  Your
friend.”

Nick was taken aback
that anyone else would have figured that out.

“Nicholas, you don’t use
your money to make or keep friends.  If anything, you of all the rich kids
I knew, never used money in that way.  Yes, you did grow up with money but
that isn’t your fault and it isn’t a bad thing either.  You have no qualms
spending money on people, that is true but it doesn’t make you shallow.
 Money is something that you have and you aren’t stingy with it.
 It’s just a way you show appreciation and there is nothing wrong with
that.  Having said that, only you and God know if you really do have an
ulterior motive when you do these things but if you know yourself as well as I
do, then you know you don’t.”

“Maybe you’re right.
 You sure know how to break things down in a different light.”

“Well, I was an attorney
before I started my business son.  Kind of comes with the territory.
 Now you don’t go letting some PHD, MD, BA or any other combination of
letters bend your truth.”

“Thanks dad.  I
guess it was worth it to suffer through a few hours of the world’s most boring
sport to get your advice.”

His father laughed at
him, before hitting the play button again.  

“Wisdom has a cost my
boy.  You know what Nick.  I’m going to go ahead and have that cola now.
 I earned it just now.”

Nick got the drink,
handed it to his father and sat back down as his father was into the game
again.  What he had said made sense to him and he was glad for the
advice.
 
Yet he was still bothered by
what Donna had said.  That she had seen him in that way.  The truth
of the matter was that he really shouldn’t even care what she thought of him.
 She was just a counselor on staff, not someone he needed to impress in
any way.

She doesn’t know me from
Adam and she made that judgement about me in less than a minute.  She
doesn’t know the first thing about me.

He knew all of that and
he was still carried away that she saw him in that light.  He realized
that he only cared because he liked her.  Most people saying that to him
would have made him laugh.  There was only be a few people in the world
that bothered him like that at all and she was one of them it seemed.  He
never realized that he liked her that much.  He’d always had a thing for
her for as long as he had known her and he wanted her to see the best in him.
 Her words told him a truth that she just saw him as some rich guy with
money to buy people.  She really didn’t understand him at all and as it
turned out, her opinion of him was something that mattered to him.  He
just hadn’t known how much until just then.  He looked at the time on his
cell phone.  

Seven p.m.

It was Friday evening
and he figured that he couldn’t lose anything in trying.

“Dad, excuse me for a
minute.  I need to make a call.”

“Yeah son, sure.”

His father dismissed
him, already deep into his game again.  

When he had gotten outside and clear of his father’s
excited rooting, he reached for his back pocket and the business card that he
had placed in his wallet that had Donna’s contact information on it.  He
had a call to make.

Donna was glad it was
Friday and the week was over.  She hadn’t realized how much more demanding
work was going to be to have the same number of regular clients she normally
had and helping them in three days a week rather than a whole week.  She
thought about her only appointment she had with her new job and it made it
worthwhile.

That Tuesday someone had
set up a last minute appointment and had sat with her during their lunch break.
 She talked to them about a personal family issue and saw the relief that
the person had.  

She knew that counseling
could be as expensive as any other medical procedure if not more but she didn’t
realize until the woman emailed her a few times just to make sure that she did
not have a co pay that she would be responsible for.  It turned out the
woman had been hoping to see someone regarding her issue but couldn’t afford to
pay for it.  That was when Donna was really most satisfied with doing.
 She knew that as word got around about the service, which would be free
to employees, more people would take advantage of the service.  

Donna pulled her car up
to the parking lot of the grocery store and walked inside.   She had
gotten all the way home from work and had walked into the kitchen when she
noticed that her cabinets and fridge were almost bare of food.  It was
definitely a chore for her, and if she had even a cup of milk and cereal, she
would have eaten that for dinner and held the shopping off for one night, but
she didn’t so she found her way back out of the house and to the store.
 Donna never really liked grocery shopping.  That was one thing she
liked about having a roommate when she was in Dallas.  She hadn’t been to
a grocery store to shop before school because she was staying with her mother
and when she got to Dallas, her roommate loved cooking so it was logical that
she pretty much did all the shopping.  

I wonder if she would
ever consider moving from Dallas to Stanton Falls.

Donna joked with
herself.  She knew there was no way that someone born and raised in a big
city would find her home anything but boring.  Donna grabbed an avocado,
gently squeezing as if she knew what she was feeling for.  She figured
somewhere between a rock and pudding had to be the right firmness.  Maybe
she would do some research online about picking out perishables.  She put
the avocado back, as well as her tomatoes and other things and made her way to
the frozen foods section when her phone started to ring in her purse with a
ringtone from a kid’s show she loved years ago.  She scrambled to get it
out of her bag before the whole frozen vegetables section began laughing at
her.  

Pulling the phone from
her bag, she didn’t recognize the number.  It was local but there were
really only a few people that had her number in town and she didn’t recognize
that number specifically as one of them.  A moment later she remembered
that she had put her cell phone number on all her emails at the new job as well
as on her business cards.  It was most likely that someone was calling her
from there.  She’d been warned that if she didn’t want to get a bunch of
calls at odd hours, she shouldn’t put her personal cell number on her cards.
 She understood why then.  First chance she had, she was going to
need to get a new personal phone and just use the old one for work.
 Either way, she was going to take the call in the middle of the
supermarket and she guessed she should answer professionally.

“Donna Sherman.”

“Hello Donna.  This
is Nick.”

“Nick?  My boss
Nick?  Is there an emergency?”

She had no idea why he’d
be calling her on a Friday evening unless there was an issue at work.
 There was a hint of concern in her voice.

“Emergency?  No.
 Nothing like that.  I figured you would be off work by now and I…”

She heard his hesitation
and it started to worry her.  She hoped it wasn’t going where she thought
it was.  With her luck, it most definitely was.  She sighed inwardly.

“Hi Donna, I know that
this is really forward of me to take your number off of your business card and
call you when it’s not for counseling services but I didn’t really know of any
other way to get in touch with you.”

“That’s fine.  What
did you need?”

“I know it’s
presumptuous of me and we kind of had a strange encounter the other day in the
office, but I was wondering or at least hoping that you might… like to … let me
take you to dinner sometime?  This time not as a thank you for working for
me, but more as associated with movie or a walk in the park.  I mean if
you aren’t too busy or anything.”

She was right.  He
was asking her out on a date.  When she thought about it, she couldn’t
even remember the last time that she had gone on a date.  Months or maybe
even over a year.  She really didn’t have time for relationships and the
problems that went with them to cloud her life over the past couple of years,
and right then definitely wasn’t the right time.  Things were moving in a
good direction for her and she saw no reason to muddy it up with something as
trivial as a boyfriend.  

“Oh Nick.  I
appreciate the gesture, I really do but…I’m not really in a mindset to date
right now.  I mean, I just moved back to town and am getting myself
together.  I don’t really have the time for it.”

“Yeah, I understand
that, but you gotta eat sometime don’t you?”

Donna looked at the
frozen chicken pot pies and one dollar meals and was momentarily tempted.

“Yes I do have to eat.
 Nick I’m going to be honest with you because you are honestly a really
nice guy from what I have seen.  But let’s be realistic.  We work
together.   I mean you are my boss in a sense.  How would it
look with you taking an employee out to dinner?”

“Not true.  You
work for Dr. Faulkner’s practice.  We employ him and he employs you.”

“You really are trying
aren’t you?”

“I always do, especially
when I find something I find worth putting the effort into.”

“C’mon Nick.  Are
you going to make me be mean to you twice in one week?  I’ll be straight
with you and take it from someone who knows, I’m just not the right girl for
you and even if I were, right now isn’t the right time.”

There was silence on the
phone, almost like he was giving her a moment to reconsider.  After about
three seconds she was almost tempted to do so when he spoke up again.

“Alright.  I’ll respect
your wishes but I hope that if the time ever becomes right, maybe you will give
me a call.  I really would like to take you to dinner one day.  I
think I would have a great time and you might even enjoy yourself too.
 Sorry to bother you on your Friday night though.  I’ll see you in
the office on Monday?”

“Bright and early.”

“Ok Donna…”

“Sorry again, gotta go
Nick, bye.”

Donna hung up the phone
quickly.  She didn’t want to give him a chance to keep going on as it
seemed like he was still hoping she would change her mind.
 
She wondered if she was just being a little
bit hasty.  When she thought about it objectively, Nick was a nice guy.
 He was the nicest kind of guy that she knew.  But she’d seen enough
in her practice and in her life to know that they always start out sweet but in
the end, men are all the same.  She mumbled under her breath as she
grabbed the night’s frozen chicken dinner.

“Looks like it’s going
to be me and you tonight again.  How about we follow up your gourmet flavorings
with an ice cream sandwich for dessert… or better yet, one of those ice cream
cones with the ice cream dipped in chocolates and nuts.  I don’t know what
they are called, but I’m gonna find them!  Mark my words chicken dinner,
mark my words.”

When the lady next to
her looked at her rather strangely through the glass, she realized she might
have gone a little far playing with her food.  

Oh well.  You are
probably going home to your husband while I’m going home to the Golden Girls so
I will talk to my food as I please.  

Satisfied with her
selections, she walked towards the register to pay for her groceries and made
her way home to a Friday night packed with fun and excitement.  

***

“Ok Donna…
 D-Donna?”

She had already hung up
the phone on him.

Now that was really
rude.  

He didn’t know if he
pushed some kind of button or if she just didn’t want to deal with him anymore
but she hung up on him quicker than he thought possible.  Not only did she
shoot him down on his requested date, but she had run off the phone with him
like he was the plague.  He scratched his head.  That was a new thing
for him.

He was not a playboy by
any means, but he had not found it difficult to get a date.  In all
honesty, he couldn’t remember a time when he had ever even been told no on a
request for a date, not counting the time he asked Emily out just to mess with
Aaron, but he already knew her answer was going to be no.  

Nick walked back into
the house with his father and sat down.  

“Everything good son?”

“Yeah… yeah dad,
everything is fine.”

“Good.  In that
case, these games are pretty much done.  I’m about to take myself a nap
before your mother gets home from her women’s meeting at church.  God
knows I love that woman but I need to rest in order to keep up with her after
one of them meetings.  A million things she’s learned that I just have to
know.”  

Nick laughed.  

His father complained
about the things she rambled about, but Nick knew that he actually looked
forward to those conversations with her.  Nick figured it had something to
do with being married for so long.  It was part of the routine that
defined them.  They had been married for over thirty years now and it was
like they were moving in the opposite direction as most relationships in
America.  Where most people seemed to drift apart the longer they were
married, they seemed to draw
closer
to one another.  It seemed like
any time that they had the chance to be together, his father and mother wanted
to.  Like the love they knew today only opened the door for greater love
tomorrow.  

Sure, he knew that they
worked on it all the time but that was what made their love seem so attractive
to him.   That was the kind of relationship that he wanted for himself
but he hadn’t found the right person to share that with.  Most of the
women he knew just didn’t catch his attention like that.  That was why he
had stayed single for so long.  He wasn’t the type that had to have
someone in his life just for the sake of being with someone.  He didn’t
know if it was because they lived in such a small town or what but he was
starting to feel like that wasn’t going to be a part of his life.  Donna
was the exception to that.  

Ever since he’d known
her, there was something there.  Just a spark, but enough to catch his
interest.  It was looking more and more each day like that was more his
imagination than anything real.  

“You go ahead dad.
 I’ll pick up out here and then I’m going to head on home and relax.
 Maybe watch an action movie or something more enjoyable than this
boredom.  I’ll probably be gone before mom gets home so tell her that I’m
sorry I missed her and that I love her.”

His father was already half asleep when he replied a
groggy affirmative.