Page 33 of Evil Queen

Christine’s eyes widened. “I see. I apologize for overstepping.”

“If Connor isn’t found, when I graduate, I’ll be stepping into my rightful place. If you have some sort of issue with that, you can step down.”

“No, sir. I understand completely.” She didn’t say anything else, rather bowed her head and immediately left.

That three hours passed was obscene, but fortunately, Nikita had the frame of mind to set my therapy appointment late enough to compensate, just in case. Exactly as she’d said she would be, she was still sitting in the lobby when I walked in, but I didn’t even get a word out to her before the receptionist called my name and motioned me back. I left my briefcase with Nikita and followed the receptionist into the recesses of the office, where I was led into a comfortable enough room with couches surrounding a fireplace, a coffee table with finger sandwiches and coffee atop it, and bookshelves lining both walls.

On one of the couches, a woman sat. She was a blonde with her hair pinned up and, surprisingly, sporting a comfortable pair of jeans and a zip-up sweatshirt.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Loche. I’m Nicole Favor,” she greeted, standing up and walking over to me with her hand outstretched. “You are dressed much nicer than I am. So you know, I don’t require such formalities. Just wear what you’re comfortable with in the future.”

“Well, I just came from a board of directors meeting at my company,” I responded.

She laughed and then noticed the seriousness on my face, and her smile dropped. “Oh, you aren’t joking.”

“No.”

“Well, Nikita has told me a little bit about you. Don’t worry, nothing personal, but she told me you’re in quite unique circumstances.” She motioned to the couch opposite the one she’d been sitting on. “Why don’t you have a seat? Help yourself to any of the sandwiches and coffee. I have bottled water if you’d prefer.”

“No, the coffee is much needed,” I said.

We walked over to the couches, and she sat with a saddened look on her face. “My, you’ve been forced to the age of about thirty, haven’t you?”

I looked over at her. “Um. I suppose.”

“Well, I’ll start with the disclaimers. You know, everything you say will stay here. Both legally and morally, it has to. Second of all, I know that you know Nikita, but she hasn’t told me much about you personally, apart from your relationship. You should feel comfortable discussing yourself as much or as little as you’d like and know that I don’t have any pre-existing beliefs about you.”

I nodded. “Okay. Thanks.”

“Lastly, if, at any point, I come to a subject that is too uncomfortable to discuss, you may tell me to stop. I believe that discussing everything, even the hard parts, is the road to recovery, but you’re not under any expectations to do that all in one session with me or even with me at all. I’m here to help, not hurt.” She smiled, and it gave me a warm feeling.

“Thank you.”

“We’ll start simple. Why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself?”

It was a difficult question for me to answer because I didn’t talk about myself often. “Um. I don’t know. I’m Nathan. I’m eighteen.”

“When’s your birthday?” she asked.

“October 8th,” I replied.

“Did you celebrate this year?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Every year, I hold a big party at the end of homecoming week at school. Instead of going to homecoming, I have anti-homecoming. Everyone from my school is invited.”

“Wow, that sounds amazing. Did you have a good time?”

The night flashed through my mind in a few quick scenes. My father, furious that I didn’t mention that Deon had come back to school. Not being able to find Cherri and seeing her sitting with Deon in the gazebo outside. Getting into a fight with Cherri and then with my father about letting Cherri leave instead of forcing her to stay.

“No,” I said. “Normally, it’s fine, but this was a tough year.”

“How come?”

“My brother…” I stopped.

Nicole held up a hand. “Don’t worry if you don’t want to talk about it.”

“It’s okay. It’s just one of the first times I’ve described him that way, so it caught me by surprise.”

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