Page 47 of High Society

“I will. Soon.” She sighs, hoping it’s a promise she will be able to keep. “Meantime, resist the urges. Give me a little more time. OK?”

“Yeah. I’ll try.” He hesitates. “Dr. Danvers?”

“Yes?”

“If ketamine really isn’t addictive, then how come I’m craving it so much?”

Holly smiles. “Because your therapy is incomplete. Once your sobriety is stable, and we’ve finished our counseling work, you won’t need ketamine anymore. You probably won’t even want it. Or any substance.”

A relieved look crosses Salvador’s face. “That’d be nice.”

After the session ends and Salvador has left, Holly summarizes the visit in his electronic record and then opens the detailed notes she is keeping on the group. She records his comment about craving ketamine, and she is about to add more when a soft rap at the door draws her attention. She looks up to see Tanya’s worried face in the doorway. “What’s up?”

“She just called again,” Tanya says. “The reporter.”

Holly’s stomach plummets. “About Elaine?”

Tanya grimaces. “I… I don’t think so. She said she was following up from last week.”

Holly sighs with relief. “You know what to tell her, Tanya.”

“You’ll get back to her as soon as you’re free?”

Holly grins. “You’re a quick study, Tanya.”

“But even putting all those media requests aside, your stack of new client requests is huge since Simon’s interview.” She hesitates. “We’re going to have to respond at some point.”

“In good time.”

“All right,” Tanya says uncertainly, before she turns away from the door. “I’ll go get your next appointment.”

A minute or two later, Tanya ushers Liisa into the seat Salvador just vacated.

“Hello, Liisa. How are you?” Holly asks.

Liisa utters a little laugh. “I always struggle with that, too.”

“With pleasantries?”

“With opening a therapeutic conversation,” Liisa says. “I sometimes start with… ‘Why don’t you bring me up to speed?’ That allows clients to launch into whatever is foremost on their mind.”

Holly smiles. “Why don’t you bring me up to speed then?”

“It feels like we’re in limbo.”

“Do you mean the group as a whole or you and me, specifically?”

“Both,” Liisa says. “As you know, I came into this group very skeptical. And only because I’d tried everything else. But I’ve been off the Xanax for almost two weeks now. Ever since you tried us on dual therapy. And I’m sold.”

“You can get to the but now…”

“Since Elaine’s death, we’ve stalled. And I think we both know that talk therapy alone will not suffice.”

“I would’ve thought you, of all people, would understand why we had to suspend the ketamine infusions.”

“Yes and no.”

“Can you elaborate?”

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