The Stepfather (MxM) ✓

Chapter 19

She glanced over to me and gave me an acknowledging grunt, to which I returned with a slight inclination of my head. And it was the moment when she just continued to the sink to brush her teeth that I realised how comfortable I had come to be here. 

There had been a time that I would have been mortified to have someone walk in on me naked (not that she could see anything indecent, but that wasn't the point), and Kelly definitely wouldn't have stepped foot out of her room without doing some pre-preparation.

We merely stayed there in companionable silence before Kelly threw me a towel and grunted that she had to pee.  I didn't want to stick around for that, so I tied the towel around my waist and promptly exited the bathroom.

Violet stuck to her plans from the night before, bringing me to therapy without complaint – Alice sitting happily in the back and humming along to whatever tune was playing quietly from the radio. All things considering, it was a relatively comfortable ride. No one felt obligated to speak, so none of that tension that existed between us was really prevalent for those twenty minutes. My mind was on everything else other than the embarrassing call that I had made last night, maybe because I had yet to recall the nitty gritty details of it – but whatever.

"Good morning, Sam," Dr Summers greeted the moment that I stepped into her office, legs elegantly crossed over the other as she sat in her lavish chair as normal – smiling pleasantly as though our sessions had actually become a perk of her job. I highly doubted that, but she did give me some insightful pieces of advice here and there. 

I couldn't lie and say that I wasn't at least a little paranoid that she was repeating half of these things to Austin, considering how close they were to one another (the odd mother-son classes indicating little else). But I had retained enough trust with her through those last few weeks to at least hope that she didn't say anything, and even then some part of me would have shrugged his shoulders at the mere prospect of Austin finding out about this.

"Morning," I replied, dropping down to my designated seat.

"So, is there anything that you feel we need to address today?" 

It was the same statement that she started every session with, giving me the choice to disclose any information I wished before she directed our entire hour together. Normally, I let her do that. But this time I actually had something in particular on my mind.

"Yeah, there is." 

If she was surprised by the blunt statement, she didn't disclose it other than a brief raise of her brow before relaxing back into her seat and allowing me to take the wheel.

"I think we've gotten to the point where you can evaluate that I'm pretty shit at dealing with people."

"I'd phrase it a little less insulting, but I catch your drift," she assured me, a slight smile quirking the corners of her lips.

"I get that communication is pretty important, you've said that before, but how exactly do you talk to people?" 

It's not as though I could go up to someone and bluntly ask them a question without expecting a punch to the jaw. Maybe I needed to work on my finesse.

"You're thinking of something in particular, aren't you?"

I made a non-committal noise at that, merely shrugging and averting my gaze. It was more of a yes than I could have hoped for.

"And I'm guessing it's kind of a taboo topic?"

Another shrug. Dr Summers was used to my reluctance in giving more information than I felt comfortable with. But she was a trooper with it, really, continuing on with the next hour as though I had given her each and every detail of my pathetic predicament.