The Gift Horse

Chapter XIV

Meredith is invited into Dr. Rodgers' office, brushing shoulders with her daughter on the way in. She sits down on the leather armchair across from the woman. The room is dimly lit, there are two tissue boxes on the table beside them, and a watercolor painting of a harbor on the wall.

Dr. Rodgers clasps her hands together and leans onto her knees, staring intently at Meredith. Meredith shrugs, confused at who should speak first.

"So," she begins. "How does she seem?"

Dr. Rodgers reclines back into the chair. "She's a very bright young lady. If I'm being honest, I see this sort of thing a lot—it's very natural for girls at this age to have body dysmorphic disorder."

"You think she has that?"

"It seems like it. But as I said, totally normal. She seems to understand what the problem is and is willing to work on it. I've encouraged her to track all of her foods."

Meredith nods.

"Should we book an appointment for next week?" She gets out her appointment book and flips to the next page. "Same time?"

"Whatever works," says Meredith.

"Great. And today will be three hundred."

Meredith blinks at her. "I'm sorry?"

"The initial meeting is three hundred, and after that is two-fifty."

Meredith takes a deep breath as her insides start to boil. She takes out her checkbook and scribbles down the amount. The checkbook has her name and RJ's—a joint account but really, it's all his money. She hasn't worked in almost twenty years. If RJ wants to spend $300 on a therapist, Meredith can't do anything about it.

She rips off the check and hands it to her, giving her a tight smile. She gets up and opens the door to let Meredith out. Olivia's on her phone in the waiting room and barely looks up.

"See you next week," says Dr. Rodgers and closes the door.

"Ready to go?" Meredith asks. Clutching the phone in her hand, Olivia stands and trudges out to the parking lot.

"You smell," says Olivia after they pull out of the parking lot.

"What an astute observation," Meredith responds dryly.

Olivia tuts and folds her arms.

"Any plans tonight?" Meredith asks.

"I'm grounded." Olivia laughs. "Are you stupid?"

Meredith presses down on the brake pedal, jerking the car to a stop on a side-street. Olivia flings her body dramatically against the seatbelt, gasping.

Meredith turns to her daughter and points her finger at her. "Enough. I'm sick of your brattiness. You need to start showing me some respect."

Olivia folds her arms and turns her head to the window. She mutters under her breath.

"Excuse me?"

"Like you deserve any," she spits. "God forbid you spend five seconds away from that stupid barn with that stupid horse. You've been miserable having to be at home with me, like you're the grounded one. And you had to go run 'errands'?" She puts her fingers up in quotes. "You couldn't wait for some time away from me so you could go shovel horse shit."

Meredith's jaw drops.

"So you'd rather me sit at home and wait on you hand and foot?" asks Meredith. "You're rude to me, you don't speak to me, you give me this look like you hate me." She waits for Olivia to respond but Olivia stares out the window with her lips tight.