The two of them must have seemed quite the pair. At the receptionist's window in Dr. Parvati's office, Max and his mother, Holly, passed a note to the heavyset lady with a brunette pixie cut in floral-patterned scrubs.
She read the note, then looked up at them, then reread the note, then looked back at them.
Max, at 19 years old, with a mop of blond hair in desperate need of cutting, stood tall with his athletic 6'2" build. Earplugs prevented him from hearing any questions he might be asked, and the duct tape around his mouth prevented him from answering any questions he might accidentally hear.
Now, as to not appear totally deranged, he had covered up the duct tape with a surgical mask, which, thankfully, was no longer the eyesore in public it once was.
Likewise, next to him, Holly also wore earplugs, duct tape, and a surgical mask. She'd called in sick to work that day, which was easy to do when, at the age of 42, it was her name on the building and paychecks. Without needing to dress up professionally for the law firm, she wore an oversized crimson hoodie and black leggings. Once more, she'd thrown her blonde hair up in a bun on top of her head. Messy, tangled, and impromptu, it drove Max absolutely wild.
Initially, their plan was to ask to see Parvati immediately, but when they had each gamed that out, neither one could stop themselves from announcing to the world that the reason was because they had just spent all night fucking each silly.
Which was no problem for them, but even on their new anti-anxiety prescription, Intrusivan, they understood making that information public would be problematic.
Hence earplugs, duct tape, surgical masks.
Since Holly had the better handwriting, as most mothers do, she had scribbled out, "We both have lost our voices and need to see Dr. Parvati immediately due to possible side effects of Intrusivan."
As the portly woman on the other side of the glass read the note for a third time, she wrinkled her nose and turned to a coworker.
"Amy, have you ever heard of Dr. Parvati prescribing something called 'Intrusivan'?"
Another woman, this one older, with curly gray hair, wheeled herself over in a chair and read the note. Her reaction mimicked that of the first woman.
"Are you sure it was Dr. Parvati?" Amy asked.
If Max had heard her properly, he would have happily answered, "Yes, Dr. Parvati prescribed it for anxiety," before dovetailing into the very specific ways that his own mom did this incredible thing with her tongue when she sucked his dick.
But since Max did not hear her properly, all he could do was point to his earplugs and mumble something through the duct tape. He concluded his answer with a thumbs up to the ladies, hoping it did not make him look more crazed than he already appeared.
Results were questionable.
Shaking her head in frustration, the first lady sighed. "Let's just get her and see what this is--"
The door to the waiting room burst open, startling both Max and Holly. Ironically, the bull in the China shop was a woman of small stature, almost a foot shorter than Max, with flawless brown skin, and wearing a lab coat. Behind her glasses, her dark eyes were wide and excited. Pulled taut into a bun, her thick black hair seemed ready to burst at the seams.
"Holly, Max! Come in, come in!" Her excitement hid just the barest trace of her native Indian accent.
"Dr. Parvati, the Johnsons are here to see you," the portly woman said, her tone defeated.
Dr. Anika Parvati waved them both over to follow her. As they hurried over, Parvati leaned back behind the door to the two women behind the desk. "Amy, hold my appointments, please."
"But, doctor, your calendar is full today," Amy said.
"Then it sounds like they'll still be sick tomorrow, doesn't it?"
When mother and son got into the hallway, Parvati motioned to them again. "We'll talk in my office."
Max and Holly followed the doctor through a winding series of medical and office corridors. Remaining several feet back, and with Parvati's back to them, Max looked straight ahead.
His mom grabbed his hand, interlocking their fingers. The warmth from her hand spread through his arm as his mind filled with the things he wanted to do to her. Even the duct tape across his mouth couldn't hide his smile.
Holly brought his hand to her mouth, giving it a quick kiss through her own mask. This prompted a distressed look from Max, who shot his eyes to the doctor, only mere feet in front of them. With a devilish gleam in her eye, his mom winked at him, then pulled her hand away.
Max could already feel his hard-on pushing against his pants.
Finally, they passed through an opening into a longer hallway. "I'm all the way at the back," Parvati said, raising her voice, so that they could hear her through their earplugs. "Corner office, windows, and vacancies all around me, so it's quiet. I'm able to work in peace."
Mother and son shared a puzzled look. Parvati had been a good doctor for them, but pushing all her appointments to the following day at the drop of a hat seemed wildly out of character for her. Not to mention her preferred isolation from others.
Parvati brought them to her office door and fished out her jangling keys. There was the unmistakable sound of a deadbolt sliding to the side, and the doctor turned and flashed them both a look. "Here we are."
Her office was much larger than Max had expected. Easily the size of two rooms. Massive floor-to-ceiling windows served as her corner walls. A large oak desk rested in front of one of the windows, next to a bookcase displaying several of her diplomas, awards, and various other professional achievements.
Two large gray couches faced each other in the middle of the room. Parvati led them to one, sitting on the other one by herself. Following her lead, Max and Holly sat down, sinking into the deep cushions. Running a hand over the material, he found it to be a soft microfiber.
Parvati offered a large smile and then motioned for them to remove their earplugs. As he did, all at once, Max heard the steady background humming of an office and medical building.
"We're going to do this carefully," Parvati said, emphasizing the "carefully" part with her hands. "I see we're still in the truth-telling phase of Intrusivan. I admit, it's a hurdle, but after a week or so, it passes."
Max nodded in acknowledgment, along with Holly.
"We're going to start with simple 'yes' or 'no' questions, and go from there," Parvati said.
Holly mumbled something, and then her shoulders sagged. She gestured at her mouth.
Parvati chuckled. "Is that duct tape under those masks?"
Both mumbled in the affirmative.
"That's what I used, as well," she said, smiling.
They pointed at her, both mumbling their own incoherent questions.
"Yes, yes, I'm on it, too," Parvati said. "I'm not going to give it to people without knowing what it's like first-hand. So, with that said, were you aware as the barrier walls of anxiety and hesitance fell away?"
Max and Holly both affirmed with excessive "Mm-hmms".
Parvati smiled, nodding. "Excellent. Now, with the anxiety and hesitance gone, were you able to more easily secure a sexual partner?"
Max and Holly snickered under their duct-taped mouths, but both nodded in the affirmative.
Parvati smiled in response. "Okay, okay, some humorous situations played themselves out, I see. Always some learning curves." She turned to Max specifically. "Did you notice a significant increase in semen production?"
Max laughed again, nodding.
Parvativ glowed with pride. "Wonderful. Okay, now slowly," she said, gesturing with her hands, "remove the masks. There is no question being asked at the moment."
In unison, Max and Holly reached up and unlooped the strings around their ears, pulling away their surgical masks. Underneath, scrawled across each piece of duct tape was the warning in red Sharpie "DO NOT REMOVE."
Trying to stifle a laugh, Parvati covered her mouth, but still elicited a chuckle. "Now remove the duct tape. Again, there is no question being asked."
Max pulled at his strip gingerly, bit by bit, just as he heard his mom yelp, tearing her piece away all at once. Oh, fine, he thought, and yanked. Pain radiated through his jaw. As it subsided, Max tried to remove as much of the leftover adhesive as possible.
"So," Parvati said, clapping her hands together, "tell me about each of the sexual partners you two found."
Like a magnetic field surged through them, Max and Holly lunged at each other, embracing in a passionate kiss, their hands all over the other's body.
In that moment, like for much of the previous night, nothing else mattered to Max. His arms wrapped around the woman he loved, his lips on her lips, his tongue on her tongue.
Parvati gasped, which was the only thing on the planet capable of pulling Max away from his mom. Eyes as big as saucers, she covered her mouth with her hands. "Our first incestuous result," she whispered.
"You're not horrified?" Max asked.
"Horrified? No, this is remarkable. An entirely new facet of possibilities," Parvati said.
"Possibilities of what?" Holly asked, scooching somehow even closer to her son on the couch, their fingers interlocked.
"Holly, Max," she said, sitting back down on the couch, "humanity is dying. Birth rates across the globe are plummeting."
"Okay?" Max asked. "What's that got to do with our prescription?"
Parvati smiled. "It has everything to do with it. There is greatness in humanity, but on our current course, we'll be extinct in a few thousand years, when instead our story should still be being written in a few million years. Intrusivan lowers our anxiety and inhibition threshold. We need a new to raise our next generation to embrace humanity's full potential."
Holly squeezed Max's hand. "So this isn't really an anxiety medicine at all?"
"Oh, it very much is," Parvati said. "The trunk of the Instrusivan tree is all about reducing anxiety. But there are also many branches on that Redwood."
"Such as?" Max asked.
"Such as..." Parvati said, trailing off. She reached up and pulled at her decorated hair pin. Thick black hair fell below her shoulders, catching glimmering light from every angle in the office.
Max watched with confusion, but a familiar pressure began to grow within him.
The doctor removed her white lab coat, revealing a black button-up blouse underneath and white linen pants.
Holly squeezed Max's hand. When he looked at his mom, her eyes were wide and her cheeks were red.
