‘Do you still think about him often?’

‘Yes… a bit,’ Pip replied.

‘Don’t worry. That’s perfectly normal.’

The blonde-haired lady with thick glasses began scribbling notes on a clipboard.

‘Forgetting completely isn’t the goal. You want to move on. You want to be able to move past him. And that will only come with time.’

Pip stared nonchalantly out the window at the gum trees which flaunted their green eucalyptus leaves proudly. Beautiful rays of light streamed onto the blue carpet that lined the floors, illuminating the room with natural sunlight.

‘It’s so hard not to think about him. He seemed so kind-hearted. I’m just a little…curious, you know. It’s not that I’m in love with him or anything. But he seemed…fun…safe…like someone I could connect with…someone I could talk to. And he still has my book.’

The blonde-haired lady with thick black glasses looked up from her notebook.

‘Are we talking about the same person?’

Pip’s eyes widened.

‘Yes! No…ahh… who were we talking about again?’

‘We were talking about Jason. But we can change the subject if you like? Who do you want to talk about.’

Pip’s cheeks flushed, and her eyes widened.

‘Yes! I mean no. No! We don’t need to change the subject. Jason,’ Pip huffed, ‘I’ve forgotten about him. I’ve forgotten about him completely. Well… not completely… but… okay sometimes I do think about him.

‘When do you think about him Pip?’

‘Usually when my mind wanders. Sometimes when I see a good-looking confident guy at work, I get a little anxious. I know not everyone is a narcissist. I hate to generalise, but it’s just a sudden reaction that I can’t really seem to help. You know?’

‘I know,’ said the blonde-haired lady, ‘how are things at work going anyway?’

Pip scratched her chin gently.

‘Things are going well. I mean, as well as I could hope for anyway. When I was seeing Jason… I went through a period where I just couldn’t get anything done. I like to think that I work hard at my job – but for a while I was just struggling. I took a few days off last week, like you suggested. It was nice to reset, and I’ve come back feeling refreshed and back to normal,’ Pip smiled brightly, but then, as if having a sudden disturbing thought, her smile turned into a frown, ‘I’m so sorry! I’m probably talking your ear off.’

‘Pip, it’s what I’m paid for. Relax.’

‘Okay,’ Pip breathed deeply, ‘how has your week been?’

The blond-haired lady laughed gently.

‘Pip, we don’t need to talk about my life. Especially when you probably have more that you need to share?’

‘Not at all. I want to hear about your life!’

‘Well then,’ the blonde-haired lady placed her clipboard and pen down onto the table next to her chair, ‘if you really want to know, my week has been a little hectic.’

‘How so?’ Pip asked.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

‘Do you really want to know about my problems?’

‘Yep. I do,’ Pip smiled.

‘Well one of my kids got into a fight at school, and the other came down with the flue. My husband has had to stay back late at work over the last few months, because our mortgage rate has gone up, which means I’ve got to sort those two out on my own – and believe me, they aren’t the easiest children to sort out.

We all have problems, and life isn’t all about avoiding them. I mean, I’d avoid them if I could, but sometimes you really can’t. Life is about working through problems. Whether at work, or in relationships or friendships.

I know you have your doubts Pip, about whether or not you deserved what you’ve got, but the truth is that in any relationship there is going to be problems. I have problems with my husband; with my children. Sometimes I mess up, sometimes my husband does, and well, my children get into trouble more often than I’d like to admit. We work through them Pip.

When it comes to your relationship with Jason, it’s probably true that you did some things wrong – but that’s normal. It doesn’t give anyone the right to verbally abuse you, control you, or invade your personal space. So you did the right thing by leaving him. Trust me.’

‘Well, as kind as that is, I don’t know how you managed to make that about me again.’

‘It’s my job Pip. You’re allowed to take some for yourself! You can spend the rest of the week caring about other people, but this one hour in the week, it’s about you. Take some time to think about yourself. Take this hour to care about yourself. And I’m not just saying that because it’s my job. Like you, Pip, I care about other people. It’s why I got into psychology. But even I see another psychologist. Even I take some time for myself.’

‘I see…well, there is something else that’s been bothering me then.’

‘I’m all ears!’ the blonde-haired lady smiled.

‘That clip board,’ Pip pointed to the clip board on the table beside her chair, ‘what do you actually write in it?’

‘Oh this?’ the blonde-haired lady laughed, ‘nothing. Absolutely nothing.’

The lady picked up the clip board and turned it around, it was full of doodles and unintelligible scribbles.

‘What’s the point of it?’ Pip asked.

‘It makes people feel secure. Haven’t you ever seen Freaky Friday?’

Pip suddenly exploded into laughter.

‘My sister was obsessed with that film! She only watched it about fifty times?’

‘I have twenty minutes after you finish up, before I see my next client. That gives me time to make my notes. It’s important for me not to be distracted while I’m talking to you. But now that you know…’ the psychologist reached over and threw the clip board onto the small desk, ‘there’s no point in me holding onto it. So Pip, we have ten minutes left. How do you think you’re going to move forward this week?’

‘Well umm, do you remember last week – we talked about making a change to my normal routine. Doing something new?’

‘Yes. Of course. Have you thought of something?’

Pip nodded.

‘I think so.’

***

Sally bopped her head to the sound of the Beatles playing through the wireless Bluetooth speaker on the window sill, as she stirred spaghetti sauce with a wooden spoon and then began feeding long strands of spaghetti into a pot full of boiling water.

I wanna hold your hand, I wanna hold your hand.

The stovetop was a mess, with red splashes of sauce all over the benches and walls, vegetable peels everywhere, and loads of dirty forks and spoons in the sink. But Sally was satisfied with the smell that filled the room. And the taste.

‘Mmmm, that’s good!’ Sally said to herself as she tasted a teaspoon of the red sauce.

‘Hey Sal,’ a familiar voice called over the music. Sally knew exactly who it was. Sally quickly turned down the music.

‘Hey Pip. Thomas is coming over for dinner. You’re welcome to join us?’

‘I’d love to,’ Pip said, her voice gentle and dreamy.

‘Cool,’ Sally turned around, ‘well then do you mind…’ Sally stopped suddenly, squinting a little to get a better look at Pip, before her lips curled up into a smile.

‘Do you umm…do you like it?’ Pip asked.

Pip’s once bright blonde hair was now a deep dark red.

‘I got it done this afternoon. I think I’m going to grow out the fringe too.’

‘I love it Pip!’

‘Thanks,’ Pip giggled brushing her hand through her hair with giddy excitement, ‘oh, there’s also something else that I wanted to tell you.’

Sally threw the dirty spoon down into the sink, ran over, took Pip’s hand and pulled her down into the empty seat by the dining room table.

‘Tell me Pip. What is it?’

‘Did you say you needed a hand with something?’

‘Never mind. I was going to ask you to help me clean up, but I’ll get Thomas to help me later on tonight. Tell me, what is it?’

‘Well…’ Pip twired a strand of hair around her fingertip ‘I applied to transfer into a different department at work!’

From the author: so I have to admit, I don't have any qualifications when it comes to psychology - and I have only been to a psychologist on a few occasions. So if anything comes off as really inaccurate or stupid - please let me know and I'll definitely edit/fix things.

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