18 going on 38

chapter 10

"Food gives you anxiety, Maya. There's no shame in it, but we need to get help before it turns dangerous."

"Skipping a few meals is not dangerous." She turned around to the receptionist who looked at her sympathetically. She hated that look. Why was everyone against her? She didn't have a problem and Carina was being dramatic.

"I'm going for a run."

"Hey, Maya no. We are here, let's just see what the doctor says." Maya ignored her and stormed out of the office.

⎯⎯⎯

Carina huffed and hid her hands in her arms.

"Are you Maya?" A kind voice asked and Carina looked up.

"No." She and the receptionist said at the same time. "I'm her wife, it seems we had a bit of a misunderstanding about who we were coming to see today. She thought I tricked her into coming here."

Dr. Aarons chuckled.

"Hey, that's not the worst reaction I've seen, not even this week." The receptionist said playfully, and Carina gave her a hollow chuckle. "That's probably not helpful, sorry."

"No, it is." Carina said. "Ehm, I'm sorry about all this, I'll pay for the appointment and I'll see if I can get her to agree to come back another time. I need to go find her."

"Where is she now?" The doctor asked, she had a kind, soft voice, Carina liked that about her.

"She's on a run." Carina huffed.

"You want my opinion?" She asked.

"Sure." Carina shrugged, it couldn't hurt.

"Give her some space, let her run it all out and come in and have a coffee with me, I just had a last minute cancellation." She winked. Carina laughed.

"You're funny." She shrugged.

"So, what do you think? You want to talk for a minute." Carina nodded before she even really thought about what she agreed to.

"Great."

They walked into the room, and Carina took a seat on the couch.

"So coffee?" Dr. Aarons asked.

"Do you have water, or maybe tea?"

"I'll get you a cup of tea, American coffee not doing it for you?"

"Hah, no. And I'm pregnant." Carina smiled.

"Ahh, I see. Congratulations."

"Yeah."

"You don't seem happy, you said you had a wife so I presume..."

"You're straight to the point aren't you?"

She shrugged. "It's the fastest way to get people talking."

"It was planned, and very, very wanted."

"Okay, so why are you not happy?"

"It's a long story."

"We have 50 minutes."

"Are you sure, we don't have to do this."

"I think you need to talk."

"That I do." Carina laughed. "Okay, fine." She launched into the whole story, she didn't care about the raised eyebrows or questioning looks, she knew the whole thing was weird.

"And you've ruled out head injury?"

"Yeah, we did that on day one, the neurosurgeon said to get a psych consult, but Maya is-" She paused, not sure how much she should share.