"You've worked miracles with Sean. His behavior at home has improved so much," Teresa Martin told Olivia. The pretty blonde mother sat perched on the edge of the wingback chair across the desk from her son's therapist, hands tightly clasped around her knees. Behind Teresa's approving words, Olivia sensed her inner anxiety.
"By 'improved,' you mean that your son's no longer showing an inappropriate sexual interest in you?"
"What else would I be talking about?" Teresa looked startled.
"Oh, I just wanted to be clear. Unspoken assumptions are the enemy of effective communication," Olivia said reassuringly. She hoped for the same rapid progress with Sean's mother during this consultation that she'd made with Sean himself. But breaking through the blonde's defense mechanisms might take some doing.
On the surface, Teresa appeared to be a demure, rather shy, and conservative woman. She was even more beautiful in the flesh than she'd appeared on video, a petite woman with an oval face, delicate features, and flaxen hair that she wore up in a tight bun. Her hips and ass were full and nicely rounded. Despite being a head shorter than Olivia, the two women could have swapped bras quite comfortably. As Teresa shifted nervously in her seat, her big melons jiggling enticingly under her thin, high-collared silk blouse.
Olivia had looked forward to this meeting all week. She'd taken care to schedule Sean's mother as her last interview of the day.
"So, no more long embraces, then?" Olivia prompted. "No lingering kisses, or fondling of your—"
"No!" Teresa's unblemished, milky complexion flushed rose-red. "Not even when his father is away on one of his two or three-day, um, absences from home. Honestly, Doctor, I can't imagine what you could have said to Sean to change him so quickly."
"You understand, I don't employ only talking therapy," Olivia demurred with secret amusement. "We've practiced a number of...sensory exercises. He's learning to redirect his focus toward more conventional emotional and physical outlets."
"All I can say is, whatever you're doing sure works," Teresa sighed wistfully. She fidgeted with the hem of her short herringbone skirt. "He comes home from your meetings so relaxed, and cheerful, and doesn't even hardly seem to notice me—I mean, not <.i>that
way."
"He hardly seems to notice you," Olivia repeated. "Teresa, if I may, is that what you truly want?"
"Yes, of course! What on Earth do you mean by that?"
"When we spoke for the first time, you described your marital relationship as frustrating," Olivia reminded her client. "And just now you mentioned your husband Ralph's undependable behavior again. Is it possible that your flirtation with Sean provided a distraction, some vicarious relief for your lack of a healthy sexual—"
"Doctor, that's absurd!" Teresa objected. "I never flirted with Sean!"
"Perhaps not consciously, no. You react as if I'm suggesting some immoral intent on your part. I assure you that I'm not. It's simply that, having met your son, I'd imagine that living in close quarters with such a masculine, attractive young male might arouse some subconscious mating response on your part."
"Mating response." Teresa's breath quickened. "No. No, certainly not. He's my son. That would be unnatural."
Olivia laughed. "My dear, nothing could be
more
natural. You're familiar with the concept of the Oedipus complex?"
"Yes, and it's considered a psychological problem! Isn't it?"
"Because Freud and all of those stuffy old male psychiatrists twisted the original myth around to suit their purposes," Olivia said with disgust. "According to the Greeks, Oedipus was punished for trying to defy his fate as foretold by the gods, not for having sex with his mother. No one at the time cared about a little mother-son action in the royal bedchamber. Myself, I suspect that Queen Jocasta was secretly delighted to swap out the old king for their strapping young warrior son. Yes, I'm quite sure that she must have enjoyed opening her legs to Oedipus." Olivia smiled wickedly. "Can't you just imagine it?"
"Doctor Walker!"
"Excuse me," Olivia apologized. "I'm afraid I can become rather passionate about such, ah, academic speculations."
As provocative as Doctor Walker's words were, Teresa was more troubled by her own reaction to them. Her heart raced, and the temperature of the office seemed to have risen several degrees. Olivia painted such a vivid image of that ancient tableau: the sensuous queen reclining on the cushions of her couch with her robes open, her naked body fully exposed, her son thrusting powerfully into her...
"Teresa?"
"What? Oh, I'm sorry, Doctor. I was just thinking about what you said."
"Of course. Tell me, do you remember when you first became aware of your son's sexualized behavior toward you?"
"Yes."
"Could you describe that incident for me? If you wouldn't find the memory too disturbing."
Teresa took a deep breath. Perhaps confiding in Doctor Walker would calm her inner turmoil. "The first time, Sean walked up behind me in the kitchen. I'd bent over to put something in the freezer compartment of the fridge. When I stood up, I nearly stumbled backward into him. He caught me, and then I felt his-his erection pressing into me." She blushed again. "He's much taller than I am. His...thing was against my lower back."
"His penis."
"Yes."
"He was hard?"
"Uh-huh. I almost screamed out loud."
"Almost. But you didn't. Why not?"
"I-I didn't want to s-scare him or make him..."
"What, Teresa? What didn't you want to make Sean do?"
"I don't remember! I mean, I didn't want—I didn't want..."
"You didn't want him to stop, did you?"
Aghast, Teresa stared down at the mahogany top of the desk in front of her. She shook her head almost imperceptibly.
After a long silence, Olivia said, "I'd like to try something here if you would. A role-playing exercise."
"Role-playing?"
