Never the Same

Chapter 5

I take a few more deep breathes and remove my hand from my blouse to grasp Luca's hand that's still on my thigh. "Thank you."

He flashes me a tight smile.

"Kaylee, I have to ask," Jane starts, "but has that ever happened to you before?"

I shake my head.

"Not even once before now?"

"No. Never."

"Alright." She gets to her feet and runs her hands down the front of her black pencil dress and pulls at the sides of her red blazer. "If you don't mind, Kaylee, I'd like to schedule you in for a session with myself to talk a few things over."

"Mother, I don't think that is necessary." Luca responds, looking up at her.

"Considering what we're all facing, I think it is. It will help to talk about what's going to happen and how-"

"Which Kaylee can do with me."

"With all due respect, Luca, but you are not qualified to handle a situation as delicate as this one."

Luca gets to his feet and stares at his mum. "I am her fiancé."

"And I am the trained psychologist who has years of experience in this matter." Her hands go to her hips. "Plus, I want to help my future daughter-in-law through this mess that has been created which involves every member of this family."

"That may be so but she is still my fiancé and even though I am grateful for your offer, Kaylee and I will talk to each other and no one else."

"Luca, you-"

"And if the time comes that we need your professional expertise," Luca shouts over her with a single hand raised to silence her, "we will ask for it."

Jane draws her lips in and presses down on them firmly. "Fine." She looks past Luca and down to me. "My office door is open to you at any time if you need to talk." She looks back at Luca. "Both of you."

Luca nods. Jane mirrors his simple action before walking out the bedroom, closing the door over slightly.

"Luca, I'm-" I start but Luca cuts me off.

"You're not going to work today," he tells me while walking off to the dressing room.

"Luca, I have to." I respond weakly. "It's my job."

He returns moments later, slipping his charcoal suit jacket on over his white shirt. "I don't care."

"Luca," I say more firmly, getting up off the bed.

"You had a panic attack, Kaylee."

"Which I'm over now."

"That was caused by Nadia getting in your head." His hands move to fix the collar of his shirt as he stands in front of the mirror. "Who says you won't have another one when you get to work and she starts spurting out a load of nonsense that you can't handle?" He turns and looks at me. "No one will be there to help you get through that like there was just now."

"Jackie is a first aider," I mutter as a joke but it doesn't go down too well as a joke.

"This isn't funny, Kaylee."

"I know it's not but what else am I supposed to do?" I finally snap.

I've had enough of being treated like I'm weak after having a panic attack. I need to get through to Luca and if that means getting into an argument right now, so be it.

"Today is the first day of a long road for us and if I can't laugh I'll cry." I admit freely. "None of this is how I wanted to spend the first few weeks of my engagement. None of this is how I wanted to spend any of my time and yet, here we are going head-to-head with your bitch of an ex who is hell-bent on getting revenge for something that happened years ago. So, Luca, I am sorry if I want to joke about something right now but it's going to be the only thing that will get me through this whole thing in a somewhat decent state of mind."