something missing..(G!p X Girl)

2- marriage counseling.

freen had been wary when she and becky had come to the family clinic and found the parking lot nearly empty, the lights in the reception area off. Just to make sure they had gone to the door together, and their knock had been immediately answered by a African-American woman, who smiled pleasantly at both of them when she let them in.

"becky and freen?"

They nodded slowly, and the woman extended her hand. "I'm Solea Barnes. You can call me Mrs. Barnes, or Sol, whichever is easier."

freen accepted her hand first, then becky.

becky was the first to open her mouth. "It's nice to meet you...we weren't sure it was open...?"

Mrs. Barnes smiled. "It's not. If you'll come with me?"

she was of average height with short almost white hair, and she wore small wire-rimmed glasses, address and high heels.

Mrs. Barnes looked easily 40 years older than becky at least...if not more and becky wasn't comfortable about that because she has that idea that old people will never understand her, freen dad best proof.

but that lady also seemed to radiate calm.

And as much as becky hated the idea of therapy, she found herself cautiously optimistic about this therapist.

"I don't have an office," Mrs. Barnes explained as she led them to an inner room decorated in dark mahogany and overstuffed black leather furniture, black-framed pictures of other people's kids.

"I'm partially retired, and I only take the kind of cases that interest me, so paying rent on an office I might not be using all that often didn't appeal to me, and Dr. Allen is a colleague and old friend of mine."

she gestured for them to sit down on the couch.
"And she's kind enough to let me use this place after hours."

freen had been surprised that she had been able to fit them in so late, after she had gotten off work.

now becky understood.
"And our case... interests you?"

"

That's what we're here to find out." Mrs. Barnes took her glasses off, folded them, then sat back. "So...?"

becky paused for a second, glancing over at her wife....The other therapists they had talked to had spent most of the time harried and rushed, reeling off their credentials and their preferred therapy methods; they were marriage counselors, and seemed to believe they already had a good grasp on whatever the problem between freen and becky was, and how to fix it, without even knowing the first thing about them.

"Would you mind, uh, telling us about yourself?"

Mrs. Barnes glanced over her shoulder at the diplomas and certificates hanging behind her on the wall, diplomas and certificates which definitely weren't her.

"I worked in high-stakes finance for ten years," she began, her voice even and almost clinical, bored.
"Didn't like the stress and how it was changing me, so I got out, but not before I made some excellent investments. I can afford to take the cases I want, which is my favorite way to work."