The Good Listener Read Free Page B

easy fix.
    But I was always up for a challenge.
    I grabbed the card and headed for Summer.
    I guess now I knew who I was going to give that open spot to.
    ~***~
    “Still no answer?”
    “Nope.”
    Summer joined me in my office.
    “What’s wrong with you?”
    “Nothing. Why do you think something is wrong with me?”
    “Lately, you have seemed different. Who is he?”
    “What? I wish. Trust me the minute that I find a man, I’m parading him around all over the place. There’s no special guy; just some family things going on lately.”
    I was surprised to hear Summer mention her family.
    We had been well acquainted for years now, and I’d never even met them. She said that they’d moved out of town a few years ago and that she wasn’t exactly their favorite child out of the bunch.
    She’d said that after years of disappointing them, they somewhat washed their hands with her and kept a good bit of distance.
    “You want to talk about it?”
    “Uh, no ma’am. I do not. It’s nothing really. Nothing that I can’t take care of. Do you want to go out for lunch today? Or do you want to order in?”
    “Neither, I brought a sandwich. I’m going to work through lunch today.”
    She shook her head.
    “All work and no play…”
    “Makes me the best at what I do,” I said finishing her sentence.
    “Yeah, tell us something we don’t know already,” she said sarcastically and shut the door behind her.
    Actually, I had to work through lunch because I had to go to a work function with Joel that night so I couldn’t stay at work late. It was also our ten-year wedding anniversary, but he had yet to mention it. I kept waiting for the phone to ring, or a surprise delivery of flowers, but nothing ever came. My guess was that he’d probably forgotten, and I wasn’t going to remind him. People only forget what isn’t important to them, and I was sure that he’d added me to his list of unimportant things a long time ago.
    At least that’s how he made me feel.
    I finished all of the work and notes that I could and for the first time in months, I left the office at the same time that everyone else did.
     
    Joel walked past the bathroom door, quickly glanced at me, but hurriedly tried to act as though he hadn’t noticed my naked frame as I got ready for his event later on that evening.
    “Your phone is ringing.”
    I covered my breasts as though he wasn’t supposed to see them and I came out of the bathroom and headed towards the dresser.
    The number was unavailable, private, but I answered it anyway.
    I always answered it.
    In the case of an emergency, I’d given a few of my patients my personal phone number.
    Some needed a little more help than others and depending on what they were dealing with; I felt that they might need to get in contact with me as soon as possible, instead of waiting for me to get their messages the next business day.
    Joel hated that I brought work home with me, but I didn’t care.
    Something could go extremely wrong after hours and just in case, I had to be available.
    “Hello?”
    I waited on them to say something, but no one said a word. Instead, at the sound of my voice, they simply hung up. Maybe it was a wrong number.
    I waited to see if they would call back and when they didn’t I concluded that it couldn’t have been a patient or anything important. I finished getting dressed as Joel stood and stared at me the entire time.
    “Happy anniversary,” he finally said.
    He remembered.
    Slowly, he walked over to me and hesitantly wrapped his arms around my waist. I shivered at his touched and even managed to smile. Joel’s touch used to make me weak, but at the moment I just felt uncomfortable and confused.
    It was as though another man had put his hands on me, which hadn't happened in years since I’d never stepped outside of our marriage.
    Even when he deserved it.
    At this point, Joel had been working for a few weeks.
    We still weren’t back to being “normal” and though we