Witness Protection ✔

Knock knock

But she'd never done this before and her nervousness grew every second.

Darius had noticed and told her to relax multiple times. But she couldn't help it.

When the doorbell rang she almost choked on her own spit but covered it up by coughing. She was sure Darius had seen her jump and knew what she was doing. And it was embarrassing.

As always, Darius opened the door while she waited in the hallway behind him. He was too tall so she couldn't see the therapist until Darius gestured for the man to come in. And what she saw surprised her.

She'd expected an old man with a balding head and glasses, but it was quite the opposite.

A young man about Darius's age entered. His hair was sand blond and his eyes a warm brown. He looked like someone you'd instantly trust, which was probably a good thing for a therapist. Instead of a dusty leather bag, he carried a backpack with him. And even though he wore a dress shirt, he also wore a regular pair of sneakers under his blue jeans.

"Hello, you must be Nathalia then? I'm Matt," he said as he stuck out his hand.

The use of her real name threw her off, but she supposed it didn't matter. Everyone in the hallway already knew her identity.

"That's me. It's nice to meet you, Matt," she replied as she shook his hand.

"The pleasure is all mine," he said with a friendly smile.

She heard Darius mutter something unintelligible as he closed the door and passed them, but she was too preoccupied to ask him about it.

"So um, would you like something to drink?" she offered.

"Could I get a glass of water, please?"

"Of course," she replied as she turned around and walked towards the kitchen. She heard Matt follow behind her.

She liked Matt, he looked like a nice person who was easy to talk to.

Darius sat at his usual spot at the kitchen table and was staring at his phone screen. She still didn't like she hadn't gotten hers back, but she did understand the reasoning behind it.

"Here you go," she said as she handed Matt his glass.

"Thank you," he replied with that same easy smile as before, "So where do you want to have the session?"

She hadn't thought about it yet. She wanted some privacy, but her room was too small and only had one chair. But Darius got up before she got to reply.

"I'll be upstairs, just yell if you need anything."

Somehow he always seemed to know what she needed, sometimes even before she realized herself. But she was very grateful for it. Despite his cold exterior he always went out of his way to help her in some way or another.

She nodded in reply and watched him go before turning back to Matt.

"We can sit here at the dinner table if that's alright with you?"

"Works for me," Matt replied as he took a seat at the table while Nathalia did the same.

He took out a small laptop and set it next to him. "So what we're going to do today is just talk, get to know each other, and then I'll explain what the next sessions are going to be like and what I can do for you, alright? I can see that you're nervous, but we're just going to talk today."

"Okay, yeah," she replied somewhat timidly.

"And if you have any questions, just ask. I'm here for you, you're not here for me," he joked.

She cracked a small smile before nodding. This might not be so bad after all.

An hour and a very long conversation later she saw Matt out again. They'd planned another session for exactly one week from then and said their goodbyes. Just as she closed the door she heard Darius come down again.

"So how did it go?"

"Well, we didn't really do anything. We just talked. But it was good, a lot easier than I expected. He said we start for real next week."

"That's good to hear. And what did you think of the guy?"

"Matt was nice, really nice. And easy to talk to. But I'd expected someone more... Therapist-y. If you know what I mean?"

"Yeah like an old guy or something? Me too. But it's good he's easy to talk to, that's sort of important for a therapist."

"Yeah, exactly. Like an old guy," she laughed.

By talking to Darius after talking to Matt for an hour it became clear just how different the men were. Matt's face was open and friendly whereas Darius's was closed off and guarded. But even though Matt was very easy to talk to the session had completely drained her. But she'd never felt drained after talking to Darius, perhaps because he didn't talk that much.

She yawned. She really wanted to take a nap but it was almost dinner time so she had to prepare dinner soon. But Darius noticed the tired look on his face and offered her an alternative.

"You know, we can get some takeout if you're tired," he offered up.

"Wait we can do that?"

"Sure, we just can't have anything delivered here. That doesn't mean we can't go out and get some food. So what do you want to eat?"

Every fast food place she could think of ran through her head. She wanted everything. As long it was warm and greasy.

Wait, Darius doesn't eat greasy food.

"I'm fine with anything, really. But what about you? Are you just going to order a salad or something?" she asked.

This earned a laugh from him as he grabbed the car keys and his jacket.

"I'll be fine, what about Chick-fil-a?"

She nodded eagerly, Chick-fil-a it was.