•9•

"Who are your other friends?", Bruno asked. 

It was a hot afternoon the Wednesday of the next week. Mei was in a short flowery summer dress and sandals with pinned up hair. Bruno was in his usual button up and dark jeans. This time, they were both seated on the couch facing each other. Bruno's uncle had put an abrupt stop to his morning businesses and had decided to have the sessions at the times they were meant to hold. And in light of this, she had took to leaving her house a whole hour and a half before, for a reason she hadn't admitted to herself yet. 

"Did you seriously just ask me that?", Mei deadpanned. 

"Yup, I did. And are you going to answer me?", Bruno retorted.

She sighed before she began, "I don't have any other friends. And before you pity me, it's because I like being alone. Friends are kinda like dead weight; unnecessary and stressful."

The few friends she had in high school had proved that to her.

"Am I dead weight?", Bruno asked again. 

"Of course not.", she answered not missing a beat, before adding, "You've not been my friend for that long anyway." 

"That is true.", he agreed. "Any recent boyfriends?", he asked again. 

She chuckled, "Uh, could you explain to me, why that matters?"

"Because it does.", he shrugged. 

"Not a good enough reason, Romano. But I'll humor you."

She took a deep breath before she continued, "I've never had a boyfriend." His eyebrows shot up the minute she said that, she noticed, but continued, "Simply because I want to know what the hell I'm doing here. I don't want a man coming to take credit for me finally understanding that, if I miraculously do that when I'm with him."

"You wanna know what I think?", he asked her. 

"Not really, Romano.", she said in a singsong voice.

"I think that, the women who say they don't need a man to feel good about themselves, aren't completely right.",

"Why?"

"Because in your case, you need someone to help you see what I'm sure pretty much the whole world sees when they look at you. You view yourself as this miserable human with absolutely nothing to live for, but that's not even a little bit true.", he explained. 

She chuckled condescendingly, "Wait, so you're me now? You know all about my life, simply because I told you a few things? Look, Mr. Psychologist, no one knows a person better than the person herself. You simply can't make assumptions based on the teeny bit of info I give you, Romano." 

"I'm not making assumptions, Mei. You told me what I'm saying, yourself. You said you don't have a purpose on this earth yet, or am I wrong?" 

He was starting to get annoyed now, Mei could see it. She really didn't care though. He couldn't just say whatever he thought he understood from her little rants like he knew everything! But the thing was, he did know almost everything.

He knew why she was like she was, he knew she had no friends, he probably knew by now that she was a virgin, he knew every other thing. She hated that. She hated that she had completely spilled her guts to someone who was practically a stranger. She could even count on one hand the number of almost irrelevant things she knew about him. She hated that, now, he could simply use all the things she told him against her at any time. 

Why was she so stupid?! she asked herself in her head. She had once sworn to herself never to open up to anyone to this extent, simply because everyone eventually leaves, and she didn't like leaving parts of her with random people. 

And so the big question now was, why did she open up to him? He wasn't anything special to her, so why the heck would she do that? It was really scaring her.

"Yes, you're wrong!", she blurted out. "You're wrong about every freaking thing! I don't hate myself! I don't believe I don't have a purpose! I love myself! I absolutely love that I'm on this stupid planet!", she was becoming hysterical. She was angry and she didn't know why. 

He didn't exactly do anything wrong though. He was being a psychologist. What he was doing was his freaking job, howbeit, she wasn't supposed to be his patient, but dammit, she was just so confused! 

Why was it so easy for her to let go of her stupid promise to herself? 

Yes, she understood that her company sort of threatened her, but she could have gone about this differently. Why did she open up to him and then, accept his friendship?! Everything was so confusing to her right then. 

"You're in some kind of stupid denial, Mei! First, you concurred. You agreed that you felt all the things that we talked about. And now, you're denying it?! I'm just your friend trying to help you so, freaking let me in, dammit! Don't push me out after you draw me in. Frankly, it's annoying!", he finished his rant. 

"You know what, Romano?! I don't care! I don't care about the crap you just said. I didn't draw you in, I was just myself by myself and you came waltzing into my life like it was your damn job!", she stood up from the couch while he looked at her. She continued, "I don't want to see you again. It was stupid of me to even start coming here after I didn't have to anymore.", she let out a whoop.  She wasn't happy but she wasn't sad either. She just felt sort of okay.

When she turned around to leave, Bruno practically flew off the couch he was sitting on and yanked on her forearm, pulling her inches away from the door, to his body. They both were now pressed to each other, her purse and phone forgotten on the floor. 

He began, "I will let you leave this office, but guess what Miss Asher,", his voice was lower, deeper; more seductive, even, "you're not getting away from me that easily.", he finished and smiled a half smile. This smile was different than the rest. This time his smile was challenging, seductive, weird mix, she knew but that's what it looked like to her. And she didn't even want to think about the fact that I'd those exact words came out of a complete stranger's mouth, she'd be scared as hell. But since the words were from him and she knew somehow that he didn't mean it the way her paranoid mind thought he did, she didn't exactly know what to feel, but she was sure it was nothing negative. 

While she was still locked in her position by his one very strong arm, she saw, his head move to the side of her face and rest there. Next, she heard his breathing and immediately felt his hot breath near her ear; it was at that spot below everyone's that was particularly sensitive. It was like he blew on that area and then, very lightly, kissed it. He then graduated to her ear, blew on it and bit the lobe. Then, he let her go with a, "See you around, Mei."

She was almost hyperventilating by now and her body seemed to be on fire. A few seconds later, when she had calmed her breathing, she narrowed her eyes and practically painted on her 'disgust' face, ignoring her heated body and said, "I never want to see your face again, Mr Romano."

He simply smirked and responded, 

"We'll see."

She snorted and walked out of his office with as much pride as she could muster.