A Helping Hand

Ironically, she was the one hesitant about actually trying the place, while you were the one urging her to go. She was worried that he might not be very experienced. You were more concerned about the difficulty of finding another place with an opening. Everywhere else you’d called had been booked. Kaori, never one to handle the practicalities, bowed to you on the matter.

The office was located at a nearby outlet mall. The only staff were the fresh-faced therapist himself, as well as his perky redheaded receptionist. He really was quite young, clearly no older than thirty five. Despite his youth, though, he had a relaxed and knowledgeable vibe. Kaori, normally so shy, warmed to him immediately. The two went back into his office, closing the door behind them. An hour later, she came out gushing with praise for her new therapist.

“He was really cool! Okay, okay. So I was scared at first, right? Like, you know how I am with people. I thought I just had to not make him angry with me.”

“I went in though and he was just…I don’t know…nice. He let me lay down and relax. We didn’t even speak at first, or anything. He just…he just waited until I was ready to say something. It made it really easy to just…talk.”

You noticed that she was clutching something in her hands. It was a pink, stuffed animal in the shape of a dog. That confused you. She certainly had brought something like that to the appointment.

“Oh? You noticed her? Hehe. He kinda gave it to me at the end. There was this whole box of different toys and he let me pick one out! He said that, uhm, if I’m ever feeling anxious I can just give her a little squeeze. I named her Dorei. You know, after the character from…”

An extremely long nerd rant followed. You followed along the entire time, {if Male = true}smiling{endif}{if Female = true}giggling{endif}.