Oil of Roses Ch. 26

"You mean he's finally realized Margo's not the only person he can talk to?" Kelly said, a touch of sarcasm in her voice.

"Now, that's not fair. She's a colleague and she's 'officially' the bride-to-be... explaining the rest of all this could be difficult," Carol said.

"And time-consuming," Nicki said, chuckling.

* * * * *

Hal Stallings hadn't been surprised when Margo Wohler-Sapperstein called him and asked for an appointment. They'd been friendly acquaintances for years and he was one of the silent majority who were of the opinion her soon to be ex-husband was a pestilent boil on the buttocks of humanity. The rumor mill had been going hot, heavy and hard about her leaving Benjamin; her new lover, or if the more extreme whisperings were to be believed, lovers; the brutal attack on her lover or lovers in the park. With all that going on, Dr. Stallings was expecting that her to need the services of a psychologist at some point, and he figured she'd call him.

He was so sure of it, in fact, that he'd made sure his receptionist knew to put through Margo's call no matter what he was in the middle of when she called.

She'd called, he'd agreed to come in on a Saturday afternoon to see her and she'd come in and talked... and talked... and talked.

There were several interesting blank spots in her story where he suspected she'd left out things she didn't want to chance anyone else knowing, no matter how secure 'doctor/patient' confidentiality was supposed to be, but overall he was pretty sure he'd gotten the whole story and that she was being as truthful as her subjective view of events allowed her to be.

They paused around 2:45 for restroom breaks and coffee. Dr. Stallings used the time to ask her some questions that weren't strictly of a doctor/patient nature.

* * * * *

Author's note: this is, in reality, part one of the Chapter That Would Not Stop Growing. It was split into pieces so that it could be posted for my readers in a somewhat timelier manner, as well as not overrun the post size limits of some sites.

My apologies for the abrupt ending.