Page 59 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 2

The ring of her doorbell was unwelcome. It had taken every ounce of her energy to get through this week without projecting her disappointment onto her patients. She didn't want to talk to anyone. She wanted to curl up in a ball and read romance novels while eating buckets of ice cream until she felt better.

Traci looked through her front door's peephole, hoping to see the mailman or some other visitor that wouldn't require emotional engagement. Unfortunately, it was the person she'd been dodging daily since returning home. The person she was least ready to see. She fidgeted nervously as she stood next to the front door, hoping he'd leave her in peace.

The pounding on the door came next. "Come on, Traci! Open up. I just saw your last patient leave. I know you're in there. You've been avoiding me long enough. I'm not leaving this time."

Knowing him as she did, she knew he meant it. Traci took a deep breath before opening the door.

"Troy."

"Traci. Are you ready to talk to me yet?"

"No. Thanks for stopping by, though." She tried to close the door, but her brother was much too fast and strong. He easily pushed his way past her, made his way to the kitchen island, and parked himself on a high stool. She shut the door with a sigh before she headed towards the kitchen herself. "Come on in. Make yourself at home, Troy."

"Knock it off, Trace. I love you, kiddo. I know something big happened at the conference and I've tried to give you some space until you were ready to talk about it, but I'm worried about you."

Traci saw the concern on her brother's face and was grateful for it. Still, she wasn’t ready to talk about Sean with Troy yet since she felt foolish for letting herself fall for a vanilla guy that lived half the country away.

"I know you're worried, and I'm sorry for that. I also know you're trying to help, but I just need some time to sort through everything, Troy."

"Let me help you. As a therapist, you're there to help so many others talk through their issues, but who's there to help you? You can be so stubborn, never asking for help." When Traci refused to look at her brother, he pleaded. "Please, Trace. Talk to me. What happened when you gave your presentation? Did people ridicule you again like you were afraid of?"

That was a question she could answer. "Actually, my presentation went great. I presented to the entire assembly and the room was packed. They listened for the full two hours. I got a great reception, and my data was well received."

"Trace, that's awesome. Congratulations! I bet that felt great."

"Honestly, it felt better than great. I couldn't believe how supportive everyone was. Even days later, people were stopping me in the hall to ask questions or let me know they'd enjoyed the presentation. There were only the normal immature idiots who I knew would try to heckle me, but even they were shutdown pretty quickly."

"So, while this is amazingly great news, I'm more confused than ever. If the presentation was such an overwhelming success, why have you been so upset since you got home? You've about bit my head off each time we talked and you're acting like your best friend just died. I thought things were going great when you decided to stay a couple extra days to enjoy Chicago, but I still don't understand why you ordered an Uber from the airport instead of letting me pick you up as we'd planned."

Traci didn't want to tell Troy she'd purposefully avoided riding in a car with him for over an hour, knowing he would pressure her with all of the same questions he was here to ask today.

She'd hoped it might get easier with time and perspective. No such luck.

"You want some coffee? Tea? Wine?"

"Enough stalling. Talk to me."

She peeked up at her big brother and saw his love for her. It gave her the courage to level with him. "I didn't stay in Chicago to sightsee. I met someone while I was there, and I wanted to spend a few more days with him."

She watched Troy trying to figure out how he felt about the new news. He proceeded cautiously. "I didn't expect that answer."

"Why, because it's so hard to believe someone might actually want to go out with me?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Trace. You are a beautiful, intelligent, warm woman. Any guy would be damn lucky to be with you. It's just... well Chicago... is far away." Troy's demeanor showed the first signs of realization of the reasons for her moodiness.

"Yes, it is one-thousand, one-hundred and five miles between Chicago and Eagle’s Pass. Not that I'm tracking it or anything." She knew it wasn't fair to snap at Troy. He was only trying to help.

"Let's back up, shall we? Does this guy have a name?"

"Of course."

"And it is?"

"Sean."

"Sean who?"

"Sean Campbell."

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