“Six things?”

“I beg your pardon?” Zarek turned to look at Chloe in the small waiting room.  They were the only two people in small area, but she was still whispering.

“There are six things that are making me feel better.”

Zarek grinned.  “Let me guess, Skye’s cupcakes have now made the list.”  She had one for breakfast this morning.

Chloe nodded.  “Yep.”

“Okay, so what’s number six?”

“You are.”

The door to the therapist’s office opened and a small man came out.  “Hi, I’m Dr. Michaels.  You must be Ms. Avery.  Would you like to come in?” 

Chloe stood up, and they looked to be the same height.  Zarek imagined how Luke must tower over the doctor.  As if he could read his mind, Dr. Michaels looked over at him, his eyes twinkling.  “You must be Mr. Post.  Mr. Larkin speaks highly of you.  Are you going to be waiting for Ms. Avery?”

“I am.”

“Follow me, Ms. Avery.”

“Thank you,” she mumbled as she followed him into the office.  Then the door shut. 

Zarek picked up a magazine and thought about what Chloe said.  He was one of the six things that made her feel good.  That was huge.  Thank God she felt that way.  Luke’s comment the other day had hit home. 

The last relationship that Zarek had had lasted four months, and that was two years ago.  When they finally parted ways, he’d been relieved.  After a few beers, he admitted to Luke that the woman hadn’t measured up.  When Luke pressed him to explain that comment, he couldn’t.  Luke had just laughed and made some remark about him having his head up his ass.

Now he realized that he had been measuring women against Chloe Rose for years.  He stretched back in the small office chair, and let his head rest against the wall and thought about what that meant.  He felt a grin form on his face.  For one thing, it meant that Luke was right and he’d had his head up his ass.  For another, it meant that he had to figure out a way to find out if Chloe might be on the same page.  Him being the sixth thing was a good sign.

He felt his phone vibrate, and he pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the group text that was on his phone.  The Avery’s were a pushy lot.  They demanded daily updates.  Up until today, he hadn’t had anything significant to report.  Seeing Zoe’s request, he realized he wasn’t going to tell them about Chloe’s appointment.  It just felt wrong to basically go behind Chloe’s back about this step. 

She’s eating more.  I see improvement.

He pressed send.

Drake was the first one to reply.  He was always the first to reply. 

What else do you have to report?

Zarek ignored it.

His phone buzzed.

It was Drake.

He let it go to voicemail.

***

Chloe felt drained.  She stared out the window watching the traffic go by on the toll road.  It was taking forever to get back to Zarek’s house.  It felt cold.  She looked at her purse that held the vile slip of paper.  She hadn’t realized that the therapist had actually been a psychiatrist.  He had prescribed medication.  Avery’s didn’t need fucking pills.  They pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. 

She needed to get back to the house so she could get to the guest bedroom and tear the paper into tiny little pieces.  Tiny, tiny little scraps.

“Chloe, are you okay?  You’re shivering.”

“I hate him.” 

“Luke said you’d say that.”  She noted that Zarek turned up the heat in the truck.  Logically she knew that it was probably eighty degrees out, and what’s more the truck had been parked outside for over an hour so it was hotter inside, but he was doing that for her.  Damn him. 

“I’m going back for three more weeks because he tricked me.  But after that I’m never going to see him again.”  She didn’t look at him when she delivered the news.  She just stared out the window.

“Tricked you how?”  He asked the question softly.  She hated how he was treating her with kid gloves.  Like she was fragile.  But she felt like she was going to shatter.  The doctor hadn’t made her feel better, he’d made her feel worse.

“He said if he could describe how I was feeling, I had to agree to coming to see him three more times.  He made me promise on my honor that I would tell the truth if he got it right.  He got it right, the bastard.”

“Luke said he was smart.  He likes him.”

“Well I don’t.  But I made a promise, so I’ll keep it.”  She knew she was sounding bitter, but it was a bitter pill to swallow, that someone could rummage around her head so easily.

Fuck, did she have to think that phrase?  She didn’t want to think about pills.  That was another thing she’d promised the doctor.  On her honor, she’d agreed to take the damn pills for as long as she saw the doctor.  He said it would help her.  She didn’t believe him.  But part of her did.  She so desperately hoped that it would help, and that just made it worse.

When she’d talked to him, he made really good points.  She thought back to what he’d said.

“Ms. Avery, you have a master’s degree in physical therapy, you know more about how the body works than most people.” Dr. Michaels smiled easily.  “You’ve studied the connection between how pain manifests in the body and the connection to the brain.  You know how powerful the brain is.”

“You’re saying I’m crazy.”

“I’m saying that at the moment, there are some chemicals that are out of balance.  What is the harm in taking a pill each day to put those chemicals back to a normal level?” 

Chloe hated how reasonable this little tiny doctor was sounding.

“Because that confirms I’m crazy,” she said vehemently.

“You just told me you’re not eating, you’re sleeping over sixteen hours a day, and the rest of the day you’re doing your damndest to zone out and not think.  How is that living a productive life?  You’re not a harm to yourself or others, which is the definition of crazy, but you’re definitely depressed.  You can’t think clearly.  You’re not the person you were eight weeks ago.  Don’t you want to be that person again?”

Damn it, did the man have to sound so reasonable?

“I can never be that Chloe again.  Didn’t you hear what happened?  I was abandoned and tortured by a sick bastard who wanted my sister to supply information that she didn’t have.  I’ll never get over that.  Never!”

“I’m not asking you to.”

“You want me to take a pill to forget,” she cried out.

“It won’t make you forget.  It will help you see things with more clarity, without as much pain.”

“It should hurt!  You don’t know what it was like.  Everything changed that day.”

“We’ll talk about it.  You’ll come back next week and we’ll talk about it.  But you’ll take your medicine because you promised.”

“We’ll see.”  Chloe got up from her chair and stood over the little man.  “What time do I have to be here next week?”

“Will the same time work for you?”

“I guess.”

Chloe left, and here she was in Zarek’s truck with a purse containing a prescription she couldn’t tear up. 

“Zarek, I need you to stop by a pharmacy.”

“Okay Cupcake, whatever you need.”