Chapter 4 #2
“Like I said, this won’t be a typical session.
I would like to do an exercise with you,” she said, then stood and walked to the corner of the room, where she retrieved a thick yoga mat.
She laid it on the ground in front of the couch.
“If you could sit facing each other, cross-legged on this mat, please.”
“Um, what?” Elijah asked. It was the first bit of panic I had heard in his voice, and that brought me a little bit of satisfaction. It was short-lived though, because I realized I, too, had to do this.
Dr. Franklin smiled. “It’s just a small exercise. Five minutes.”
“I’m a little sore,” I said. “From a workout I did yesterday. Floor sits sound terrible right now.”
“No problem, you can stay on the couch. It might not be as comfortable, but that’s fine,” she said. “Just turn and face each other.”
If I refused again, would she start to suspect we were strangers?
Or maybe if we were actually forced to look at each other for any length of time, she’d realize we were strangers based on our uncomfortable body language.
Yes, I decided that was more likely and took my place cross-legged on the mat.
“You changed your mind?” she asked.
“It will be good for me to stretch,” I said, popping my eyebrows in Elijah’s direction.
“Right,” he said, joining me on the floor. Our knees touched.
“Now,” Dr. Franklin said, “when is the last time you had uninterrupted eye contact?”
“It’s been forever,” Elijah said with a smirk.
“I recommend five minutes every day. It doesn’t seem like a lot…”
It actually seemed like an eternity.
“But it goes a long way in strengthening your connection. I’ll start the timer now.”
“Oh, we’re doing this now?” I asked.
“Yes, now.”
We locked eyes. His were a honey brown with a ring of green around the pupil. I wondered what mine looked like now. Mine were a gray-blue hue, probably more gray in this light. I’d put on minimal makeup today. But I knew my lashes were coated in black mascara.
The door opened and I turned to see Dr. Franklin leaving the room. “Where are you going?” I asked.
“Uninterrupted,” she said. “I’ll be back in five.” She closed the door behind her.
So much for her observing our awkward body language. “Is this her way of getting a paid break?” I asked under my breath in case she could somehow hear us.
He smiled. “It’s pretty clever.”
“We probably don’t have to keep staring at each other,” I said, but did, in fact, keep staring.
“What if that mirror is two-way?” he asked quietly.
“True,” I conceded with a quick glance at the large mirror on the far wall. Maybe that was her way to see how healthy a relationship truly was. Would it be ethical to watch us without our knowledge? I wasn’t sure.
His lashes were long, a deep chocolate brown. He had really clear olive skin too. He’d earned my original nickname of Villain Pretty Boy. Because there was a devilish spark in his eyes and a sharp upturn to his grin. “Do people call you Eli?” I wondered aloud.
“Mostly,” he said. “Do people call you button?”
“Never,” I said and hoped my look said that he shouldn’t either.
It must’ve, because he laughed. When it was genuine, he actually had a very nice smile.
Not so conniving. I felt myself slouching into the floor and straightened up, putting my hands on my lower back to support myself for a moment.
I really was sore from the orange juice cleanup that morning. It had required a lot of squatting.
“Your back hurt?” he asked. Maybe he was good at reading body language after all.
“No, I … yeah,” I said.
“We don’t have to keep sitting here. We’re not in a time-out.”
It felt like we were. And we both obviously thought we had to do exactly as she told us, because our eyes were still locked in place.
She might’ve been on to something with this eye contact thing.
I could see how being forced to connect for a few minutes every day might re-center a couple.
Not us, but a hypothetical couple. It was making me feel …
what, I wasn’t sure. But something stirred in my chest and loosened in my shoulders.
“Are we being hypnotized?”
I smiled. “To do what?”
“Whatever she wants us to,” he said in a spooky voice. “Her little army of marketers.”
“How did Michael get her name?” I played along.
“I need to find out.” His eyes shot down to my shirt. “Do you like the Strokes or is it a statement piece?”
“Yes, I like them, but if you ask me to name three songs to prove myself, you will become my enemy.”
“Am I not already your enemy?”
“Fair point.”
“And I don’t know three songs,” he said.
“You don’t know the Strokes?”
“I’ve heard of them, but they are not on my playlist.”
The door opened to my right, breaking our eye contact. I stood and stretched as Dr. Franklin walked in.
“How was that?” she asked, as if our world had just been altered forever.
I sat back on the couch and Elijah joined me.
“It was hypnotizing,” he said with a smile in his voice.
“What are other things you do to strengthen your connection?” she asked, settling into her chair, her pen still hovering over her notebook.
I willed it to write, These people are very much strangers.
They wouldn’t be able to pick each other out of a lineup of similar-looking people. That last part probably wasn’t true.
I wondered what she’d have to say to count as a win for Tara. Michael had said that even deducing we weren’t in a relationship would count. Had she really not deduced that yet?
“She loves to give me back rubs,” Elijah was saying. “They’re my favorite.”
“What?” I asked, turning to him.
“She asked what we do to strengthen our connection,” he said. “You give me back rubs.”
“And what do you do for her in return?” Dr. Franklin asked.
Elijah said, “We should probably keep that to ourselves. But believe me, she likes it.”
Dr. Franklin actually blushed, and even though I’d told him not to touch me, I reached over and squeezed his leg in a death grip. He squirmed.
“Well,” she said, “for this week, your homework is five minutes every day of uninterrupted eye contact. No screens, no phone calls, no … uh, touching. Just eye contact.”
I nodded. That wasn’t happening.
“And I’ll see you guys same day, same time next week?”
“Sounds good,” Elijah said.
Another week was not happening. We were done. I needed to talk to Tara.
Elijah stood and I followed. Dr. Franklin shook each of our hands and walked us to the door and then the lobby.
When we walked outside, Elijah said, “I’m so winning this bet.”