"A-are you serious? Maybe that's your depression or something"
You scoff, "ironically I'm only happy recently when I'm with..." you trail because you're almost scared to say 'her' out loud.
"Who is he? Is it someone I know?" Veronica asks nervously.
You cringe. Fuck.
"It's not...I mean...It's Toni" you say quickly and your hand clenches around your cup so damn tightly.
"Toni?" Veronica repeats slowly as you watch her face contort with confusion. She looks at you then laughs a little. "No seriously Cheryl, tell me who it is"
You shoot her a look that you hope conveys you are deadly serious and scared as fuck. Veronica's eye's go wide when she realizes you are serious. "Oh," she says silently, "so you're...?"
"I don't know, I'm confused, I mean...yeah...but it's only Toni I feel this way with and I don't know, I'm still trying to figure things out."
"How long have you known? I mean how did this happen? When? Why?" she asks and she laughs a little like she's dumbfounded. "What about Reggie? What are you going to do? Have you been having an affair or something?" she frowns at you.
"No," you say waving your hand dismissively and you feel relief seep out your body, for some reason the other woman isn't totally freaking out on you and you're thankful. "I would never do that to Reggie, at least, I don't think I would..."
She frowns at you more deeply, "I always thought you and Reggie were perfect for each other" she says like her whole view of you as a person has just changed."We are!" you insist but the words just don't ring true leaving your mouth. "Maybe this is nothing, I don't know"
"Do you love her?" Veronica asks. Your heart stops.
"I-I...I...haven't thought about that I mean, we've not known each other long..." you trail and get lost in your thoughts. You feel cold all of a sudden. Are you in love with her?
"She's your counselor though, isn't that inappropriate? What am I saying? You are getting married in like 9 weeks, that makes it even more inappropriate!"
You suddenly feel like Veronica's you're fucking mother and she is giving you a lecture over something you haven't even done. Well, scratch that, there's no way your mother would care half as much as Veronica does."We haven't done anything! Technically..." Veronica quirks an eyebrow at you and she finally feels comfortable enough with the conversation to start drinking her coffee.
"We haven't even kissed but she said she likes me and, well, I like her" you say and you kind of choke on your own words. Hearing your own voice say it out loud makes it somehow all the more real. "I really, really like her" you add miserably.
"How much?"
"How much do I like Toni?" you repeat and she nods as confirmation. You can't even help the big smile that you feel spreading across your lips. "Ugh, TT, she's so..."
"TT now is it?" Veronica gives a snarky laugh.
"I, whatever" you roll your eyes and feel embarrassed. "She's just so awesome you know? Like in my counseling sessions she makes me think about things differently but then she's kind of different when she's not in her work mode and she's just even more awesome. She's so smart and funny and fucking magical and ugh she likes to fix things, and she has this cute dog, oh and did I say she was smart? Cause she's smart, like totally, but then she says the strangest things and she just reminds me of an excited kid, and god when she looks at me with those eyes I-"
You stop talking when Veronica's laugh interrupts you.
Chapter 8
Start from the beginning