Angel In Darkness

We Meet

My name is Alonzo Henry Fowler.  I've been practicing psychology for about eight years now.  I see many things in my profession.  I have many different people come in and out of my office day in and day out looking for some escape or another from their lives, or the issues of their lives.    I find, many of them simply just need someone to talk to on the outside who doesn't have a judgmental position.  That is where I come in.  Sometimes though, with all of the different personalities that I encounter, it can be challenging to meet someone that I truly like.  I find myself always psychoanalyzing the women that I have dated and on more than one occasion it has been the cause of the break-up.  

I'm thirty-eight now and my life is void of that special someone who I can spend my life with and settle down and raise a family with.  My father and mother constantly remind me of that every time I go to visit.  "Alonzo Henry,"  Mom will say, "Your mother is not getting any younger.  When are you going to bring home some lovely young woman and grandchildren?"  Father would just nod and agree with her.  My dad came from a very poor background, raised by a single mother, him and his five siblings didn't have a privileged life.  He had worked hard and taken care of his siblings and mother until she passed.  He then joined the draft and was a serviceman for over 30 years before he retired.  

We moved around quite a bit, but he had retired here in a small county outside of the Jersey Shore.  I grew up in many different atmospheres as a military brat.  As a result of my father's service in the military, I was raised under very strict guidelines.  Everything was always pristine in our household.  My father and mother met in the military.  My father said he knew immediately when he saw my mother that she was the one for him.  I often wondered if that was an exaggeration on his part for affect.  That is, until I met her.  

I was having lunch in a small corner café in town.  After getting my degree in psychology, I had practiced under another local psychologist for a few years before I had opened my own practice five years ago.  Business was good and I didn't have that many patients calling me in the middle of the night with medical emergencies so that was a plus.  

Nevertheless, I was sitting at this small café when she caught my attention from across the room.  She was seated in a corner booth with her girlfriend.  I watched her mannerisms from across the room.  I noticed how she nervously licked her lips and looked around the establishment regularly.  I wondered what she had endured in her life to have her so on edge.  Yes, I could tell that from across the room.  

I had to meet her.  There was just something about her that called out to me.  She was not tall, about five foot. She has a very curvy frame.  Her breast were a little more than a handful upon my first perusal of her.  I walked across the room and I greeted her and her friend.  "Hello ladies, I noticed you all across the room and I had to come and introduce myself to such beautiful women."  I said my eyes trained on her.   She glanced up and I was immediately lost in her deep brown eyes.  Her skin was smooth and a creamy mocha color.  Her friend was very forward and outright flirty, but I wasn't interested in her.  Not one bit. 

"Hello to you too."  Her friend said putting a hand on my leg suggestively.  "My name is Kayla."  I politely brushed her hand away from my leg and greeted her with a stiff smile.  

"Nice to uh... meet you Miss Kayla."  Then, turning to her friend I said, "And you are?"  

"Celestiel."  Was her simple reply.  

"Heavenly, I can definitely see the connection between the name and the beauty."  I said laying it on thick.  She had me hooked, line and sinker.  I just wanted to get to know her on a deeper level.  I didn't care what she had going on, and she definitely had stuff going on.  I noticed it in her every movement.  The way she nervously played with her fingers and bit her lip.  The slight tremble in her movements.  It turned me on immensely.  

"You know what my name means?"  She asked surprised.  

"I know many things Celestiel, maybe if you allow me to take you out sometimes, I can show you some of them."  I held her gaze, but she quickly averted.  I noticed the slight tint in her cheeks and it turned me on that she was blushing.  It was something about her innocence. 

"You haven't even told us your name."  Her friend piped in, obviously annoyed at being ignored.  

"My apologies."  I stated turning and briefly addressing her friend.  Then, turning back to Celestiel, I extended my hand and introduced myself the way I always did when I first met someone.  

"Henry."  She looked at my outstretched hand and then after a moment grasped it.  I was surprised at the effect that the small gesture had on me.  A spark of interest immediately went up through my hand, and down into the part of me that had seen too many lotion bottles and not enough wonderful legs and hips wrapped around it.  We sat there; hands interlocked for what seemed like forever and I read so much in her expression; interest, fear, longing, despair.  Just then, the waitress approached with their bill.  

"If you ladies are finished here is your bill."  She said handing the check over to Kayla.  Celestiel moved to retrieve some bills from her purse and I put a hand to her arm, halting her actions.

"No, let me."  I said throwing a ten on the table and then taking the check and giving the waitress my card to charge it.  I wasn't interested in Kayla, but I would gladly pay for her meal, if it meant I could be in the company of Celestiel just a bit longer.  

"That wasn't necessary."  Celestiel said as the waitress walked off to swipe my card.  

"Girl let that man pay for some food if he wants to, not like you are ever going to allow it any other time."  I wasn't sure what Kayla was talking about, but my interest was piqued when Celestiel started blushing.  

"Kayla, please don't do this right now?"  She said quickly putting her arm in the straps of her pocketbook.  

"No, you need to get out more and stop sitting in your room like a monk.  Hey Henry,"  She said turning to me, "You happen to know a shrink, my home girl could sure use one."  I wasn't sure of Kayla's motives for putting Celestiel on blast the way she had.  Chances are she was mad that my attention was focused and trained on Celestiel.  Classic case of make him think he chose the wrong girl.  

"Here Celestiel,"  I said handing her my card.  "Give me a call sometimes.  I'm sure I can help you rectify that little issue.  You ladies have a good day."  As much as I didn't want to leave the table that way, I felt it was necessary to walk off then.  The doctor in me, wanted to tell her who I was and suggest she come in and see me, but then I had a strict rule against dating anyone that was a client of mines so I hoped she would seek me out.  I had given her my card with my home and personal cell numbers on them.  I heard her scolding Kayla as I walked off and I silently praised her in my head for standing up for herself.  I hoped like hell she would call me.  I didn't know if I'd ever just casually run into her again.  When I returned to my office that day, I daydreamed of the beautiful caramel mocha latte beauty from the café.  The thought of her made me ridiculously hard and aroused.  It was definitely going to be a cold shower for me when I got home.