Therapy - 2/28

Tina shook her head and pushed away from her desk. Her bank account lay in front of the screen, hovering like a vulture. She sighed and felt Anna's attention swivel from her own cubicle.

"What's wrong?"

"Therapists, what they charge…" She signed again and double clicked the window closed.

"Horrible, that's why I quit." Anna rose and filled up her coffee cup from the office station just outside their small, walled off area.

"So terrible." Tina turned in her chair and looked up at the other woman. She had been fortunate to have someone she could lean on outside of home. The divorce had been hard enough to handle and Tina had managed to keep her chin up at home, but like her kids, she needed someone to lean on. At least Anna didn't charge as much as the therapists that had been recommended for her son and daughter. The two teenagers hadn't been able to handle it well, but neither was Tina's pocketbook.

"So awful." Anna tried to smile.

Tina knew she had been through it before and knew the path that Tina was trying to walk. That too was comforting. The fact that Anna had once been the doctor at the other end of the couch presumably let her provide even better support. She hated to admit it but Tina knew she was getting the counseling that she was paying for her kids, for free here at work. Without Anna around, she probably would have gone off the deep end when she found out about the papers. When she found out about the affair. When Jeffrey had finally walked out.

"Thanks for all of your help," she offered, but even that gratitude, however genuine sounded hollow.

"Don't worry about it." Anna smiled warmly and once more, Tina felt a little stronger. A little more like she could handle the rest of her day and the stack of papers that were waiting to be processed.