"Hello?"
"Hi, how may I help you?"
"Dr. Venruil, please."
I heard some clicks and then a phone rang. And rang. I got his voicemail and hung up.
A minute later my phone rang.
"Hello."
"Hi, this is John. I think I may just have missed your call."
"Oh, hi. Yeah. How....?"
"Caller-ID."
"Oh, of course. Stupid question."
"Not at all. How may I help you – if at all?"
"Well." I paused and d gathered my thoughts which had whooshed out of my head once he didn't answer the first call. I was pretty nervous. "I was referred to you by my friend Cindy. Cindy Smith."
"OK." Neutral. Non-committal. I realized he had to be professional which I guess meant not even acknowledging that he knew Cindy. But I knew he did.
"Oh aaaah. So, Cindy said you could help me....maybe."
"OK." Neutral again. Then he waited. I knew what he meant: get to the point.
"I mean if you have time....or if you want to....or I can pay you." He'd handled Cindy's problem free of charge but I wasn't sure why. I figured he must charge something.
"OK. But what seems to be the issue?"
"Well it's me. Or, actually, my boyfriend, or....I guess maybe it's me."
"You're having an issue with your boyfriend and think I might be able to help?"
"Yes! Or, well I don't know. Maybe. It's kind of ..."
"Hard to explain? Personal?" He said it in a neutral but friendly way, if that makes any sense. It was pretty obvious he'd had these kinds of calls before.
"Yes." I waited. The line was quiet except for some office type sounds like a copy machine somewhere.
"What's your name?"
"Caitlyn. Caitlyn Desjardin."
"Caitlyn. I have a thing starting up in about 2 minutes. What do you say I call you later? Is 4 P.M. OK?"
"Aaaah...4 o'clock...I guess so."
"Great. I'll call you then." Click.
He called back at 4:02.
"Caitlyn? It's John. We spoke earlier."
"Oh, hi, thanks for..."
"So, this problem. With your boyfriend. You want to tell me about it?"
"It's kind of hard over the phone."
"I understand. We can arrange an in person if you like. But usually people want to give me some background before they come in."
"Right. It's just..."
"But it's up to you. We can do it either way."
I gathered my courage. "Maybe phone is better. I don't know."
"A lot of people like to go over the phone at first. Get the embarrassing stuff out without eye-contact I suppose." He laughed. A pleasant sort of non-judgmental laugh. A nice welcoming laugh in fact.
"It's a relationship problem. I tried to fix it on my own but now I think I might need some help. Do you do those?"
"Well it depends. My specialty is with women experiencing sexual problems or frustrations in a relationship. I focus with them on the physical side of their love lives. Course that pretty much ties to every emotion they have too, doesn't it?" He chuckled again in that friendly way. I liked the sound of his voice and his laugh. "Does that describe your problem?"
"Yes. I think so."
"So what is it?" We both waited. "What is the problem you might need help with?"
I could hear the emphasis on 'might' and realized it was time to come clean. "Ummmm. It's giving head. Oh, I mean oral sex. You know with me on him, not the other way around."
"You can call it giving head. Is that how the two of you refer to it?"
I was already blushing like mad but I realized, hey! he can't see me. It did make it easier. So I answered truthfully.
"Well that.... or blowjobs...or sucking him off. You know. All of them."
"Right. And how old are you Caitlyn."
This one I was ready for. "I'm 18. I just turned 18 two days ago."
"Oh, happy birthday then Caitlyn. You can show your age on your license or birth certificate or something when you come in?"
"Yeah. I know you can't talk to girls about sex until they are 18. It's why I waited. Cindy told me about that and about what you did for her." I pictured Cindy who had been hounding me to make this call for 2 weeks. I was a little unclear on what Cindy's problem had been and totally unclear on what Dr. Venruil had done for her, but something good I guess. "She's your biggest fan! And I thought maybe you might be able to help me."
"With giving head?"
"Yes."
"Or blowjobs?" His voice seemed to have gone up a pitch. It was funny.
"Yes."
"Or sucking him off?" His voice went up again. He said it as though he were a frightened teenaged girl.
I felt like I could see him smiling over the line at me. I started laughing. "Yes. That too."
"Do you mean, Caitlyn, DO YOU MEAN: fellatio?" His voice had gone deep and husky like those guys on the cable news stations Dad watches. I laughed even harder then.
"Well that's good. Good to have a little laugh at problems. Seems to cut them down to size somehow, right?"
"Yeah. It does."
"So I think I might be able to help you with your blowjob problem but I won't know for sure until we meet in person. Is that OK with you?"