Page 1 of Hypnotized By Love

CHAPTER ONE

“What did they say?” my identical twin sister, Sierra, asked me as I slumped into the chair across the table from her. She’d told me to meet her at Starbucks after my meeting, and I was regretting that. I didn’t want to be in public right now. I wanted to go home and curl into a ball.

I took off my blazer, and not surprisingly, I was sweating everywhere. I had been trying to look professional, and instead I was a swampy mess. I wondered if that had played any role in the committee’s decision. Only a fool like me would wear a blazer in June in Florida.

“Savannah?” Sierra was waving her hand in front of me, trying to get my attention.

“Censured,” I said, letting out a long breath. My sister pushed a Paradise Drink toward me, and I sipped at it. Not even pineapple mixed with coconut milk could soothe this gaping wound. I was in trouble, and I hadn’t done anything wrong. “I’m officially censured.”

I didn’t like how heavy that word felt in my mouth. Even though the air-conditioning was on, I pulled my blouse away from my skin, trying to create some kind of breeze to cool down my overheated body.

“What does ‘censured’ mean?” she asked.

“It basically means I’m on probation. That if something else happens, I’m in danger of losing my certification.”

Sierra managed to look angry, frustrated, and concerned all at once. That was the thing about having an identical twin—it was like having a living mirror. Not just in the physical sense, where I was constantly reminded that we had the exact same features, the same dark brown hair and matching dark eyes, but in having a person who constantly reflected your own emotions back at you. Because I was also angry, frustrated, and concerned.

But mostly angry.

“Even if you lost your certification, you could still practice, though, right?”

I shrugged a shoulder. I could. But there were so many dishonest and untrained people in my field claiming to be hypnotherapists that having that certification felt really important to me. Yes, technically I could still practice hypnosis with people, but being a member of the professional organizations that I belonged to and was accredited with mattered to me in a way that I wasn’t sure I could explain to Sierra.

When I didn’t answer, she asked, “What did Camila say about it?”

That question felt like a hot knife skewering my stomach. “I think she’s disappointed.” Camila had been my mentor and the person who’d started me down the road of my profession. She seemed to believe my side of the story but had admonished me to remember what she’d taught me.

I read Camila’s text out loud to Sierra. “It isn’t fair, but like I’ve told you—you have to be very careful. Going forward you’ll have to avoid even the appearance of evil. Don’t give them any more ammunition.” Camila had responded after I’d messaged her to let her know how the meeting had gone. I hated this feeling—like I’d somehow let her down. She’d always been so proud of me in the past.

And I couldn’t even talk things out with her or make a game plan to move forward. She’d texted me from the airport because she was taking a flight to Peru for a retreat and would be incommunicado for the next couple of weeks.

“What does she mean by ‘the appearance of evil’?” Sierra asked.

I set my phone down on the table. “I don’t know. I’m guessing anything that can be construed the wrong way. Maybe I should drop my male clients. Or start recording our sessions. Just to protect myself.”

Something I would have to look up—whether I was even allowed to do that. I had no idea what the law said about it.

My sister leaned across the table and put her hand on top of mine. “I don’t think things are that dire.”

She hadn’t been in that meeting. “They might be.” I let out a long sigh and played with my straw. “How were things at your job today?”

Sierra was an emergency room nurse, and despite her tendency to share the grossest parts of her day, I wanted to change the subject and not think about how close I’d come to losing everything I’d worked for.

All because a man I’d romantically rejected had lied about me and made it his mission to try to ruin my career.

My sister was in the midst of making me clench up as she described her last patient, and the object he’d had in a particular orifice, when our friend Bridget arrived.

Bridget asked, “Am I interrupting?”

“Yes, thankfully,” I told her. We’d all been friends since high school but had grown closer after we’d moved back to our hometown around the same time. Bridget had taken over her mother’s flower shop and had decided to set a state record for most men dated in a single year.

She flashed a smile at me, knowing all too well the kind of grisly story Sierra had been sharing with me. As always, Bridget was a tiny, bright blonde blur, never holding still for very long, shifting and moving in her seat as she settled in.

“I want to hear all about what happened today with you, Savannah,” she said as she dropped two shopping bags on the floor.

But I didn’t want to dwell on the situation. “It went fine. I’m censured. On probation. But I still have my certification.”

Her face turned a light red, and she shook with the rage I was trying to keep contained. “How can they let him get away with this?”

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