“Well, Mr. Baxwell has a meeting scheduled with me this afternoon. I finally got around to opening the envelope he gave me a while ago.” Tierra paused, reflecting on the contents of the mystery envelope she received almost two months ago. “Every time I was about to open it, I’d get a phone call or an emergency would come up and back in the drawer it would go. Then Mr. Baxwell told me to hold off on opening it. Talk about confusing.”
“Why were you confused?”
“I’ve gotten perks before, but usually they came along with a promotion or something of the sort. I’m not up for either right now. I mean I’m the head of my department, there isn’t another promotion from here.”
“So what did the envelope contain?”
“That’s the confusing part. It was just a letter, but it was written in his hand, not typed as one would normally have been and it read, ‘Tierra, you are my most trusted employee. Having said that, I have an important matter to discuss with you. When you read this, please call my secretary and she will set up a meeting for you and I to speak. Please keep this meeting to yourself…’ Secrecy isn’t a thing Mr. Baxwell usually does. I mean, sure to keep something under wraps until the big reveal, but secret meetings, I’ve never known him to have one. If he wanted to meet with me why not just tell me to make an appointment with him from the jump, why the envelope?”
“Are you worried about your job?”
“No, I mean, I don’t think so. There is no one at B.E. that can handle things, not the way I do. They don’t bring in the clients that I do. And, they damn sure don’t have a love for the job as I do. But lately, I’ve cut back on my hours just a little bit. See, I’ve been more active at the prayer meetings at church. I haven’t gone on a Sunday yet. I figure when God is ready for me to, I will.”
“So between the uncertainty at work and your reluctance to go to church on Sunday’s, what do you think is going on?”
“I don’t know? You’re the therapist. Don’t I pay you to tell me what’s wrong with me?” Tierra said, as her therapist wrote in his notebook. When he finished writing, he looked up at her, as if he were waiting for her to comment on his thought. So she did. “Ok look, maybe it’s all those people. I mean, it’s not a business deal. What if they begin to ask those usual church questions, like who needs Jesus or who wants to give their life to God? Then there’s this lady, that’s there sometimes, and she is so beautiful and kind. She doesn’t say much, but when she does say something to me, it seems to be just what I needed to hear.”
Again the therapist wrote in his notebook.
Tierra sat stiffly on the gray sofa in the therapist’s office, with her legs bent up and her arms wrapped tightly around them. Ever since her mother showed up unannounced at her doorstep, she’s been pushing for Tierra to go and get some type of professional counseling. Finally, a few weeks ago she gave in and received a few referrals from her primary doctor and sought one out.
“Well, you should think about what it is that bothers you about being there and write it down,” the young therapist began. Dr. Mark Burton, was a nice looking man, but he didn’t look a day over twenty-five. At first Tierra had an issue with allowing someone so young give her advice on her life. After two sessions, she mustered up enough nerve to ask him how old he was, and found out he was actually forty-two. She was glad, because out of the three therapists she had seen, Dr. Mark, as she called him, made her feel the most comfortable. Though she wasn’t comfortable at all talking about her feelings, at least he was able to get her to open up somewhat. “By the way, Tierra, what has become of the gentleman who asked you out?”
“Asked me out, Dr. Mark?” she laughed. “Malcolm did more than ask me out. He damn near said we were destined to merge our lives into one! Now, he keeps sending me flowers and gifts. I’ve stopped handling his accounts. I’m just not ready to date. I don’t trust anyone like that,” she said as she closed her eyes tight, and twirled a strand of her hair between her fingers.
“Tierra, open your eyes. Do you know that whenever we talk about you dating you close your eyes and twirl your hair?” he asked, “I’ve noticed it over the past few sessions.”
“No, do I really? Ewe! That’s a very bad habit. I hope I don’t do that when I’m out in public.”
“Well, it seems to be only brought out by dating questions. So what are you going to do about this young man?”
“Come to think of it, I pray that this is not what Mr. Baxwell wants to talk about. I mean Malcolm is the largest client at B.E. I turned his account over to one of the agents under me. I just can’t deal with having to talk to him and not knowing if he will bring up the dating question.”
“Well, you’ll know when you return to work today, right?”
“Yeah.”
Doctor Mark stood up and reached his hand out towards Tierra.
“Has it been an hour already? Dag, time sure flies,” she reluctantly stood up and accepted his hand into hers. “Next week, same time right?”
He nodded in agreement, after checking his appointment book.
“Ok, see you then.”
She saw Dr. Mark on her Thursday’s during her lunch breaks. Normally, Thursday’s were reserved for lunch with her new clients. Now it was her secret lunch break for personal healing.