Chapter 2

Cato wakes up and has his usual breakfast. He goes down to the fitness center to work out for a few hours. He takes a dip in the pool and it's almost as if all the stressors in his life had disappeared for a moment. He takes a shower then dries himself off.

Heading back upstairs he gets in the elevator is his gym shorts and wife beater, a thirty-something year old hits on him. He just ignored her and got off at his floor. He looks at the clock and it's around one thirty so he changes and prepares for his first patient of the day. He changes into a pair of black Alexander McQueen Dress pants, A grey Brunello Cucinelli crewneck sweater, and a pair of black Lanvin calfskin loafers.

He goes into the room he has set up for his appointments and fixes simple things like the pillows on the couch. He then proceeds to go to his office and pulls out the files for the clients he's meeting with today and sets them on his desk. He goes on his computer and prints out a psychiatric evaluation form that he'll use when he meets with Clove.

Clove Rathburn arrives at 15 Central Park West, she wonders how someone so young and living by himself can afford such prime real estate. She enters the eloquent lobby and checks in at the front desk. "I have a five o'clock appointment with Cato Astor," She explains and the concierge hands her a key card for the elevator. "His residence is 35s," he explains and she heads towards the elevator.

She slides the keycard through the machine and it automatically takes her to his apartment. She gets off and when she enters the uber-luxurious apartment he's nowhere to be found. She sits down on one of the white leather sofas and she waits for him. She checks her watch and it's four fifty nine. Suddenly a door opens and a girl emerges from it along with whom she assumes is Cato. "Bye Annie, have a nice day," he says to the girl.

Clove stands up and he notices her. "Well you must be Clove, it's nice to meet you," he says while extending a hand out that she shakes. "It's nice to meet you too," she says while taking not of his physique, she can see his large muscles through his sweater and she wonders what it'd be like to rip that sweater off of him. Stop being so inappropriate, she mentally scolds herself. He must've caught her staring because he gives her a slight laugh, "Let's go back to my office."

He guides her down a hallway to a room and he holds the door for her. She goes inside and it's so different from the rest of the house with the dark wood floors and burgundy walls, it almost has a romantic feel to it. She sits down on the velvet loveseat and he spins a chair around so he's facing her.

"So tell me a bit about why you think you're here Clove," he says. She tries to think about why she's here, In all honesty she's not sure except for the fact that her mother made her come. She starts thinking about her previous hospitalization that happened a few years ago due to a suicide attempt. Then all the fragments of though she's having start to come together, "well when I was fifteen I was hospitalized for a suicide attempt, and there they came to the conclusion that I have bipolar disorder and severe anxiety. I feel as if with the medications I'm on have stabilized my mood and honestly I think I'm doing pretty well at managing it but apparently my mother doesn't think I am."

"What medications are you on?" He inquires. She thinks for a second trying to recall, "Ten Milligrams of Celexa, Ten Milligrams of Abilify, six hundred milligrams of Lithium, and four hundred milligrams of Lamictal."

Cato writes all of this information down on a notepad. "Wow, you're on some pretty high dosages of strong medications," He says raising an eyebrow at her. She shrugs, "Well I've been on Abilify and Lamictal since I was fifteen but I just got put on celexa recently because I kept having panic attacks."

"How old are you currently?" he asks. "Nineteen," she says.

"Can you describe what your high school life was like?" Cato asks. Clove looks puzzled but she begins to talk anyways, "Well, I went to Fiorello LaGuardia High School, you know the performing arts one. I didn't have many friends because I was always so focused on theater and schoolwork. Ninth and tenth grade were really frustrating because my parents were never around so I literally had to raise myself. Eleventh grade got better because I got my first boyfriend who I was with until the end of senior year, and then twelfth grade got even better because my mother and father moved back here to the city."

Cato writes some more stuff down in his notebook and continues to ask her questions, "Has your mood been fluctuating at all?" She answers without a second thought, "being truthful I feel as if it has been lately, like there's times I'll get mad for no reasons, then I'll be extremely happy for a few days then everything's just depressing after that and I'll hate the world for a while until the cycle starts all over again."

"Well I can definitely see how some doctors would think that you have bipolar, what about your sleep habits? Have they been good?" He asks. She rolls her eyes and talks, "Well if by good you mean staying up all night drinking until three am until I pass out then yes I've been sleeping well."

That earns a chuckle from Cato and Clove smiles at him. Cato asks another question, "what about motivation? Have you been doing all of your usual activities?" Clove places her elbow on the arm rest of the sofa and props her head up with her hand, "Well I've been performing in all of my shows, but I don't really do any leisure activities anymore, and anytime I consider going out shopping I normally just go online and shop. However, I do go out to drink every night, so I guess there's one leisure activity for you."

"Okay so now I'm going to say some statements and you're going to respond true or false based on whether it applies to you, okay?" She nods her head. Cato begins, "I experienced an unusually elevated mood where I was extremely elated, happy, or energetic." She speaks up, "True."

"I took enormous risks such as having unprotected sex or spending extravagantly, without thinking about the possibility of negative consequences," Cato says and Clove nods. "True," She Says

"I had periods of time when I needed little or no sleep, yet functioned as well or better than usual." He says. She responds with, "True."

"Distracting thoughts and ideas popped unwanted or too quickly in my head," Cato spoke. Clove replies, "True."

"I experienced periods where it felt like everything I did was tremendously important - like the world depended on the success of my plans." He said. Clove responds, "True."

"I don't really doubt you but I just want to make sure, are you being honest while answering these?" Cato asks. Clove shakes her head, "Yes sir."

Cato smirks at the mention of the word sir, he kind of likes it, especially when it's coming out of Clove's mouth. He speaks up again, "During the past year I experienced extreme mood swings from depression to elation without any apparent reason" She nods, "True."

"I felt that these symptoms interfered with my life in some way, or they caused me distress," He speaks. Clove licks her lips and responds, "True."

"Well Clove, we're done with those for now but I'm afraid our time is up. Honestly I'm going to recommend additional therapy but the choice is yours on whether you want to pursue that option or not. I'm actually booked solid for the next few months but honestly I feel a strange urge to help you so if eight pm appointments would work for you I'm open to that but I understand if you want to find a different therapist" Clove gives him one of her rare genuine smiles and speaks up, "Are you sure you don't mind altering your schedule for me, I'm sorry for being skeptical but I feel like it's a lot to ask out of you…"

"No Clove it's my pleasure, honestly I would love to help you out I just don't want to pressure you into anything," He says. She nods understandingly and says, "Okay well can we book some appointments then?"

He smiles at her and pulls out his appointment book, "How many do you want for this month?" She smiles sheepishly, "Okay I know it's a lot but what about every day, excluding weekends, for this month, I'm just considering the fact that my mood's been so unpredictable lately that I should be under some sort of constant monitoring."

"I actually agree with your theory and I support it," he says with a smile. Clove smiles back at him, "So do you want to go get some drinks or something?"

Cato laughs, thinking that she's joking except when he sees the expression on her face he knows she was being serious. "Oh sorry, I thought you we're kidding. It's just that, doing that would be highly unprofessional of me and if anyone were to find out it would be very controversial and I'd have to deal with all of the repercussions," He explains.

"Oh, I didn't think it was that big of a deal, I mean it's not like we're going to date or anything," she explains. He considers the idea of it, "Well I guess since there's patient confidentiality that no one has to know you're my patient… oh what the hell fine lets go get some drinks."