A reader commented that I am clearly not a therapist in real life. Well – yes, well spotted, ha ha. I appreciate you so much for commenting though and apologise if any of you are therapists. Please forgive me.

However, I acknowledge that there will be a large number of inauthentic situations in this new story so I have a small appeal. Dear readers, can we appreciate this story as we would, for example, an episode of The Blacklist? It's far fetched but it has redeeming features, i.e., an attractive woman running around in it? That's all I ask of you. Don't get bogged down in the details that I don't have time to research. I'm only writing it because I ate too much Chinese food with the kids and cannot sleep so decided for some unknown reason to listen to the Top Gun Soundtrack and then this idea arrived and I wrote it down. I'm not sure those two things have anything to do with each other.

So can we do the easy-going route please? What? Oh – yes we can, great. I will continue.

Part Two

Finella Linton was a vibrant woman who had an eccentric fashion sense all of her own. She was the best therapist that Sarah had ever met and had been an invaluable mentor to her and was now a close friend.

'Why are you so miserable?' Finella asked through a mouthful of masticated chocolate cake.

They were meeting at a local coffee shop while Edward had his swimming lesson.

Sarah poked at her latte with her spoon and shrugged.

'I'm not miserable,' she argued.

Finella slurped her coffee noisily then said, 'if I guess correctly will you fess up?'

Sarah tried to smile but it did not reach her eyes.

Finella took another whopping forkful of cake and regarded Sarah with such a look that she felt like Finella was reading her mind and tapping into parts of her brain which should remain private.

Sarah waited patiently.

'That client you had a few months ago,' Finella said slowly.

Sarah shifted in her seat.

'What was her name again?' Finella said thoughtfully. 'Caroline something double barreled.'

Sarah remained silent.

'The one that you spoke to me about,' Finella went on. 'You had the hots for her and passed her on to someone else.'

'Shhh,' Sarah chastised and looked around the crowded coffee shop.

'She's what's bothering you,' Finella smiled victoriously. 'Don't deny it.'

'I wouldn't even try to,' Sarah muttered.

'It's her isn't it?'

'It's not what you think it is,' Sarah said. 'But she has been on my mind yes.'

'Share.'

'Well, I passed her on to Phil but I spoke to him last week and he said that he hasn't seen her. She hasn't even contacted him,' Sarah sighed. 'I feel terrible and it's my fault. I was completely unprofessional.'

Finella sighed and put down her fork.

'You did what you felt was right – yes?'

'At the time.'

'Remind me, this is the woman whose wife was killed and they had a child together,' Finella frowned as she pulled the details from the depths of her memory.

'Yes.'

'Sarah, her situation is not that different from your own. No matter how professional you are or the boundaries you set, you're still human.'

'I should be better than that but I felt – I don't know, wrong sitting there thinking about how much I liked her while listening to her grieve. I made it about me when it should have been about her.'

'For once you made a poor decision,' Finella looked her dead in the eyes. 'You thought it was right at the time.'

'And now I feel bad because she isn't seeing a therapist at all.'

'As far as you know,' Finella corrected. 'She could have gone somewhere else.'

'I suppose.'

Finella shrugged. 'I thought we were just coming out for coffee and to talk about last night's news quiz.'

'We are,' Sarah grabbed her friend's hand. 'I'm sorry.'

Finella sighed. 'If she wasn't your client would you have asked her out?'

Sarah balked. 'I don't think I will ask anyone out on a date ever again.'

'I will take that as a yes,' the red head said.

'You know me so well,' Sarah laughed.

'Better than you know yourself.'

0

Flora loved the activities at the local leisure complex and Caroline wanted to do anything she could to ensure that her daughter enjoyed every moment of her life.

The activity for today had been toddler soft play. Flora was exhausted and sleepy as Caroline struggled to get the child's tights back on her. Even with Flora tired and compliant the tights would not yield and Caroline got more and more frustrated as other mothers successfully dressed their children and headed off to whatever else they would do this Saturday morning.

Caroline sighed. She would still be here at closing time trying to get these tights on if she did not hurry up.

'Roll them up like socks,' a voice suggested.

Caroline looked up.

She thought the woman's name was Daisy but she could not be sure. She was young and pretty and held her child like a natural mother.

'Thanks,' Caroline muttered but her face was red now and she was getting hotter by the second.

Daisy put her child into her pram and then bent down and took Caroline's hands gently.

'May I?' she asked softly.

Caroline wanted to push her away, she felt foolish and useless but Daisy's eyes were genuine.

'Thank you,' she managed to say.

Within seconds Daisy had the tights on Flora and was smiling at Caroline.

'It took me ages to get the hang of those things. Poor Sophie was such a patient little thing,' Daisy stroked her daughter's head. 'Anyway, see you next week,' Daisy said hopefully.

'Yes, possibly,' Caroline was distracted. 'We usually try to vary our activities.'

'Well then,' Daisy smiled. 'Maybe we could do coffee afterwards?'

Caroline was shocked and then realised that the woman knew nothing about her and was probably just trying to be supportive to a mother that was clearly more mature than everyone else and clearly struggling.

'Maybe,' she said cautiously. 'I mean, if we run into each other that would be – nice.'

'OK,' Daisy nodded. 'Hopefully, I will run into you.'

She waved a goodbye and left the room.

Caroline followed her a moment later with Flora fast asleep in her pushchair.

'And mummy,' a little boy's voice said. 'Then I did ten tumbles in the water.'

'Ten! That's great.'

Caroline stopped suddenly as two pairs of legs appeared in front of the pushchair.

She looked up about to give the adult a piece of her mind when her mouth dropped open.

'Doctor Ronson?'

'Caroline.'

Sarah tried to ignore the surge of panic that ran through her body.

'Sorry, we weren't looking where we were going,' Sarah said.

Caroline continued to stare.

'Are you alright?' Sarah asked.

Caroline's knees buckled and Sarah shot forwards to catch her.

'Edward, could you go and ask Ali to come and help us please?' she put her arm around Caroline. 'Come sit on these seats over here.'

Sarah helped Caroline to sit and then went to bring Flora closer.

A moment later Edward returned with a woman that worked at the leisure complex.

'Are you alright?' she crouched beside Caroline and looked at her with concern.

'Yes, I think so,' Caroline was embarrassed. 'I got a shock,' she looked directly at Sarah. 'I got a shock when I saw you again.'