Cassie hung up the phone and glanced down at the notepad she'd been doodling on. There it was again. Ty's name written all over the page. God! What was wrong with her? It had been five days since she'd seen Ty, and she still couldn't stop thinking about him.
Tell me it's because I'm subconsciously working a treatment plan. Not because she was obsessed with him. How could she be obsessed with him? She didn't even like men anymore, let alone want to date ever again, so she certainly wouldn't be obsessing about Ty, would she? No way. It was simply impossible.
Wasn't it? She wouldn't do anything that stupid...
Would she?
Heaven help her. She couldn't even stop doubting herself now. This was all wrong. She needed to snap to it and figure out what in the world was going on.
A light tap sounded on her office door. "Cass?"
"Leo!" Leo would have answers! Cassie sat up as Leo poked her head in. "Hi!"
Leo tossed a small bag of foil-encased goodies on Cassie's desk, then plopped down in one of the client chairs. "I couldn't believe it when I drove by and saw your office lights still on. It's after nine."
"Yeah, well, my job's important. Thanks for stopping by. And for bringing chocolate." After the dismal failure of the Emergency Chocolate Relief Session, she'd decided that maybe she'd built up immunity to chocolate. She'd gone cold turkey since then. Sixteen days was enough time for all the chocolate to get out of her system, so it was time to try again. Not because she was stressed and needed the chocolate. Merely because she was curious as to the results of her experiment. She selected one in pale pink foil, unwrapped it and popped it in her mouth. Heaven. "You rock."
"So, what's up? I haven't seen you all week." Leo took a glance around the office. "Did you leave the window open in a hurricane or something?"
"What?" Cassie grabbed another chocolate.
"Your office is a disaster. What happened to my anal friend?"
Cassie took a slow glance around her office. Hmm... stacks of files in the corner, a dirty coffee cup and the takeout container from last night was still on the floor. Whoa. Why hadn't she noticed that? Failure to maintain decent standards of cleanliness was always something she looked for in her clients. Especially since she'd cleaned it last week. How had it gotten so messy already?
Leo cocked an eyebrow. "What's going on with you?"
Cassie pursed her lips. She supposed it couldn't hurt to run it by Leo and see what she thought. "Well, there's a slight possibility that I'm losing my professional edge." She lowered her voice. "I might be getting too personally involved with a client."
There.
She'd done it.
Admitted there was a chance she didn't have things quite in control as she liked to pretend.
That didn't mean she was teetering on the edge of total insanity with an inability to cope with anything. It simply indicated she was incredibly self-aware and able to assess even the smallest little blip in her oh-so-stable mental state. Not a big deal. At all.
But it never hurt to brainstorm and see what Leo would suggest.
"It's Ty, isn't it?" Leo asked.
"Lucky guess." She shoved an entire nugget into her mouth and let it melt on her tongue. Save me, chocolate. Return me to sanity. No, that wasn't right. That implied she'd left sanity behind when she came back from the Bahamas, which was a gross distortion of the truth. Plus she didn't need saving. Certainly not. She'd simply had a craving for chocolate just now because she was addicted and had gone too long without it. Nothing more than that.
"What's the problem?" Leo asked.
"I think I'm beginning to imagine trouble between Ty and his fiancée. He said she was like his sister, and, well, that sounds sort of fishy to me."
"So? That sounds like you're being an astute therapist. You're always spouting off about how marital problems are so stressful. If making love to her is like making love to his sister, then yes, that would be a problem."
Ty making love to another woman. The thought made the sweet she'd just eaten congeal in her stomach. A sign of being an obsessed stalker? "The thing is... well... sometimes when I consider that they might be having problems, I get this weird sort of feeling in my stomach, almost like I'm hoping I'm right. Probably indigestion, huh?"
"You think you might be wanting him for yourself?"
"No! That would be so unprofessional!"
"Yes, it would." Leo clucked her tongue against the inside of her cheek. "Did you consider that the sister comment could simply have meant that she's as important to him as his own sister would be? An integral part of his life and his existence."
"Of course I considered that." How had she not thought of that? Maybe she really was obsessed with him. Maybe she was distorting reality because she couldn't cope with him actually being in love with someone else.
Great. So good to discover the negative side of being a crazed stalker: when the stalkee was in love with someone else, it sucked.
But only a little bit.
Really, it wasn't a big deal.
Because she didn't really like Ty anyway. It was merely because he'd played the role of the hero in front of Drew. Yes, that was it. She was projecting on to him because of her own baggage. So she had a little bit of baggage. Nothing she couldn't handle.
"You going to drop him?"
Cassie frowned. "Drop Ty? Of course not."
"Why not?"
"Because he's my client. I can't abandon him in the middle of his therapy. He needs me." That was true. He did need her. As did all her clients. Nothing special about Ty.
Leo cocked an eyebrow at Cassie. "He needs you, or you need him?"
"Both. I mean, he needs me. My help, I mean." She rattled on before Leo could stop her and question her slip. "He's been living in his house for six months, and he still hasn't unpacked. He can't remember appointments. His tie is crooked. He doesn't take care of basic home maintenance. And there's something going on with work. Plus he threw an icepack, and he even admitted he was tense. Oh, and he has trouble sleeping." It's about the stress, Cassie. Nothing else. Just his stress. That's why you've been thinking about him constantly. "The man has some serious tension in his life."
Leo's eyes widened. "Since when do you talk about the specifics of your client's issues? You're the queen of confidentiality."
Holy shit. Leo was right. Oh, God. That was it. The first sign of total and complete mental decay. She was turning in her license before she destroyed all her clients and... No. One lapse in her entire career didn't mean she'd lost all grips on her sanity, did it? She'd never make that mistake again, and she'd learned her lesson. See? Everything was fine. If she was really bordering on psychotic, then she wouldn't have a pit of guilt in her stomach, would she? Absolutely not.
"And what about your filthy office?"
"The slightly messy office is merely an experiment to help me empathize with people who are too stressed to keep their houses sanitary. Quite brilliant, don't you think?"
"You're in denial."
Cassie frowned. "About what?"
"That you're still screwed up from that whole Drew thing. That's why you can't focus on your clients or your work or anything."
"Don't be ridiculous. I don't care about Drew." Why would she spend any time whatsoever dwelling on the man who'd had her heart wrapped around his little finger, only to tear it off, attack it with a jackhammer, throw it in the garbage disposal, then use it to clean his toilet? "You think I'm still in love with him? You've got to be kidding."
"I'm not saying you still love him," Leo said carefully. "I just think it has affected your self-confidence. It has distorted your view of relationships. You have issues."
Cassie lifted her chin. "I'm fabulous. Spectacular, even." I am a sexy, brilliant woman who all men yearn for. And I don't need men. Never have. Never will.
"Are you? Maybe the reason you're obsessing about Ty is because he's safe. You're afraid of a relationship, terrified of trusting a man, so you let yourself fall for a man who's not available."
Cassie stared at Leo. "First of all, I haven't fallen for Ty. Just so we're clear on that. Second of all, where do you come up with this nonsense? I'm the stress therapist here. Don't you think I'd know if I was having some emotional collapse?"
"I'm beginning to think you wouldn't, actually."
"Well, you're wrong." Cassie sat up and spread her hands on her desk. Look at that. They weren't even shaking. Obviously, she was an emotional rock. "But your comments have helped me realize that I'm not actually obsessed with him, I don't have issues, and I'm entirely capable of continuing to treat him and help him get ready for his fiancée. Ty was my rebound sexual encounter, and I got a little carried away for a bit. That's it. Nothing else."
Look at that. Didn't even stumble over the word fiancée. Did she have it together or what? She was a rock.
Leo threw up her hands. "Fine. I give. You are a testament to the fortitude of womankind."
"Exactly. I have no issues at all."
She'd just go over to Ty's house on Sunday, finish her assessment and then prepare a treatment plan, just like she'd do with any other client.
Because she didn't have issues.
Had she mentioned she didn't have issues?
She didn't.
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