Hypnothe-Rapist Ch. 01

He shrugged back. "Well, good," he said. "I mean, like I said, I do feel happier and better now. I don't really know why, but...I..." He let his sentence trail off.

Angela smiled and looked down coyly, feeling herself gleefully melt inside. "Well," she said, "We do seem to have made some good progress this opening session. Now, if you like, you can see Mrs. Saunders outside and she can schedule you a follow-up session for whenever you like, and..." She took a business card and handed it to him. "Here. Feel free to update us, or call me on my cell if we're not in the office—both numbers are on there—to reschedule your appointments at any time, or if you just wanna talk for a minute.

"In the meantime," she continued, "Besides a reasonable bedtime and a good night's sleep, I would recommend you take yourself out a bit more, Timothy. Treat yourself once in a while. Don't go overboard, but just indulge yourself sometimes. Try to meet some friendly people, make some new buddies...maybe find yourself a nice girl." She winked.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Absolutely. And, if you don't happen to meet a woman you like, or vice versa, just remember..." she said, "...And I don't mean to be indelicate here, but, a little bit of...shall we say...'self-love' never hurts either."

Timothy nodded, taking this information in with a certain degree of surprise in his face, it not exactly being the sort of advice he might have anticipated. "It doesn't?"

"Certainly not. While lack of sleep would tend to make just about anyone depressed, satisfactory sexual activity may not affect everybody, but it could hardly put a dampen on your day."

"Well, I...I don't really know what to say..." he said. "I mean, I-I really didn't think I'd feel this..."

"...Relieved?"

He gazed at her in wonder. "...Yeah. Exactly."

She modestly fluttered her eyelashes. "That's what I'm here for, my friend."

"Geez," he said, "Y'know, if I thought it was okay, I'd say I wanted to hug you. But, that's probably not someth—"

Hearing the word, Angela promptly grinned, stood up from her chair and opened her arms, gesturing with her fingers for him to come right into her waiting embrace. "Hug away."

Another moment later, he thanked her, said goodbye and left. Angela sat back down, plugged her phone in, powered it back up, pressed and held down the intercom button and said, "Hi, Paula. Mr. Jacobs is on his way out."

In another moment Paula would ask Timothy if and when he wanted to see the doctor again. Another moment after that, she would return the information to Angela.

"Anybody else?" she asked Paula.

"No, that's it for today," she cheerily replied. "We're done!"

"Awesome!" said Angela. "Wanna go grab a bite?"

"Okay, but only if I get to buy this time."

"Hmm, let me think about that. Oh, all right."

Both packed up their purses, put away all relevant work, turned off the lights, and departed, locking the door behind them.

Just another day in the office of Dr. Angela Starr.