Doug opened the door to the waiting room and walked in. The antechamber was small, and it was made even more cramped by the baskets of toys lining the shelves and the magazines scattered across the low coffee table. The door to the next room was closed, so he sat down on the couch, set his backpack down on the floor between his legs and picked up a People magazine. He was still leafing through it when the office door opened in front of him. A forty-ish woman and middle-school-aged girl walked out followed by Dr. Rogers.
He looked up to hear Dr. Rogers telling them to email her about rescheduling their appointment next week because she would be out of town. The mother looked a little worn but spoke genially as she guided her daughter by the back through the doorway.
Doug avoided eye contact as they awkwardly pushed through the narrow strait between the coffee table and coat rack. The door to the hallway opened and closed behind him, and Dr. Rogers motioned him in to the office.
"Great to see you Doug," she said in her jaunty rasp. "How's it going?"
Doug rose, picking up his backpack by the strap and letting it dangle from his side.
"Oh I'm pretty good, thanks."
He walked through the door, which she closed behind him. "I'm back in town for the week, and I wanted to stop in and talk things over with you."
The office was well appointed, appropriate for a successful therapist. The room was deep but not very wide, and a new Mac laptop was open on the desk by the door.
Doug walked past the desk and sat down on the couch against the back wall. He put his backpack on the cushion next to him and watched Dr. Rogers pick up a notebook from her desk. She walked towards him, hoop earrings jangling beneath her fashionably pinned-back wavy hair, and she sat down in the high-backed chair across from him.
"I'm glad you did, it's always nice to hear from you," she said, smiling at him. "Does anything in particular bring you in today?"
Doug fidgeted. Dr. Rogers was his childhood shrink. He had seen her as a nervous boy when he was about the same age as her previous patient, visiting her in her old office once a week for a few years, then sporadically for another year or so. They always had had a smooth, happy relationship. Looking back on it, he thought she exuded a nurturing maternal calmness. Even now, over a decade later, he felt relaxed around her.
Of course he was well aware that he harbored a deep and abiding infatuation with her. He had built an image up in his mind over the years their years apart, which he often drew on while masturbating. Her remembered her as always kind, always happy to see him, always genuinely concerned over his wellbeing. She still tugged at that one spot behind his chest—halfway between his brain and his balls.
He had started visiting again about a year ago, driving the 40 minutes out to his hometown once every couple of months to nibble at the corners of his anxieties. She was fit for woman in her late 40s and always wore the smart but casual business suits of the modern professional woman. Looking at her from across a small coffee table, he thought her blouse hugged her breasts nicely.
"Yeah there were a couple of things." He gave her a few of what he thought of as news items: how things were at work, what his parents were up to, what he had been doing for fun. Ten minutes went by. He genuinely liked talking to her about these things, but he also knew that if this had any shot he would have to ease into it.
"And how about your relationship," she asked. "How's Jess?"
He came right out with it. "Well, we actually aren't seeing each other anymore. It had been pretty bad for a while, and it just had to happen."
"Oh Doug, I'm sorry to hear that," she said kindly.
"Thanks." He wasn't quite sure what to say. The break-up was a big deal, but he didn't know how he felt about it yet. He and Jess had been together for almost two years, and it was all still so fresh.
"How do you feel about it?" she asked.
"I really don't know. It's so new. We were dating for a long time. Life feels different without her, but I don't think it's all bad. I can see now how unhappy we were dating, so staying together for it's own sake wouldn't have made any sense."
"Do you know why you were so unhappy?"
"I don't know," he said again. "It seems like it was a lot of things, so it's hard to put my finger on one."
"I know you had spoken to me about your sexual life, how it hadn't been good for a while."
His seemingly innocent nibbling over the past year was paying off—she brought it up on her own.
"Yeah, we hadn't had sex in a few weeks, and even when we did before that it wasn't great."
He sighed, upset at the truth this part of his plan was based on.
"That's too bad. Sex is an important part of a relationship, especially since I know you have such a vivid interior sexual life."
She clearly remembered his sessions well. They had discussed his sexual frustrations in a couple previous sessions, and he divulged some of his deep fantasies. But he always made sure to just dip a toe in those waters, carefully steering it back to less dicey topics after mentioning his kinks. Now it was time to plunge ahead.
"Yeah, you know, she never warmed to what I was into. I think it kind of turned her off. But I just like the idea of talking about my little dick."