Page 43 of My Blind Date is a Demon

“Oh, right. Yeah.” He goes into his room and starts to close the door. “Night.”

“Night,” I say as I shuffle past. I can feel my face burning with embarrassment. I close the bathroom door and get my pills out of the cabinet, taking them quickly. When I close the cabinet door and look at myself in the mirror, all I see is disappointment. I’m such a coward.

“Bye, honey!” I say as I wave at Bella when I drop her off at my parents’ house the next day. They watch her when I go to see my therapist.

“Cause lots of trouble!” Damon calls out.

“I will!” Bella calls back. I watch her run up to the door and my mother greet her with open arms. They both wave as I drive away.

Damon and I drive in tense silence, me gripping the steering wheel like I’m strangling it. We haven’t spoken since last night except to exchange the barest of information.

“So…therapy,” Damon says in what I assume is an attempt to break the awkwardness.

“Yup,” I say. “I guess you can just sit in the waiting room while Dr. Jaishankar and I talk.”

“I hope she has good magazines,” Damon mumbles.

“Probably Psychology Today,” I say.

“So lame.”

When we get to the doctor’s office, I take the cookie jar in with me, setting it on the coffee table. Damon walks around the bare room, looking already bored out of his mind. He picks up a magazine and shows it to me.

“You were right,” he says, and we chuckle.

Dr. Jaishankar, a pretty, middle-aged Indian woman, opens the door and starts. “Oh, wow. Okay. I mean, I’ve seen djinn before, but this…this is something else.”

“Djinn?” I ask as I stand up.

“In Islamic tradition, we consider all demon folk to be djinn.”

“Oh, right. Bella told me that. She read it in a book,” I say, standing and picking up the cookie jar. “Is it okay if he just sits out here while we have our session?”

“Well, why is he here at all?” she asks.

“Umm, it’s sort of complicated. But basically, he is a demon who was sent to torture me, but my daughter trapped him in this cookie jar. So, he’s still bound to me, but he can’t hurt me. Believe me, if I could have left him at home, I would have.”

“Okay…” Dr. Jaishankar says thoughtfully. “Well, why don’t… I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

“You can just call me Damon,” he says, shaking her hand slowly.

“Well, why don’t you join us, Damon,” the doctor says. “Sounds like we have a lot to talk about.”

“I don’t think that’s—”

“I’d love to,” Damon says, walking back into her office before I can tell him no. I roll my eyes and follow both of them back.

Damon and I both sit on the couch opposite Dr. Jaishankar, the cookie jar between us.

“So, tell me a little more about how you met and how things have been going,” the doctor says, getting her notebook out.

I give her the main points from what has happened so far, with Damon filling in some of the details. Dr. Jaishankar is so engaged in our story, she doesn’t write much down.

“So, it sounds like the two of you had a good time last night,” she says.

I have to nod. “It was a nice change of pace.”

“Is that all it was?” she asks me.

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