Chapter 10: The Girl in the Mirror (part 2)

Everyone sat silently together in the room that night. On the couch, Elliot had wedged himself between Michael and Stephanie, which bothered both of them. Joanna sat off more by herself in one of the chairs from the dinner table. Kirk sat over on the window sill and Larry and his brothers all piled onto the chair.

"So, uh, I hear that everyone had an interesting day," Bob started as pulled up a chair.

The room remained quiet for the most part. Everyone had something on their mind and no one wanted to be the first to bring anything up this time.

"I thought the patients weren't supposed to make out with each other while on this trip," Elliot mentioned.

"I agree!" Kirk announced. "Isn't that the sole reason of the separate cabins?"

"You're just jealous," Michael replied, smiling bigger than he ever had before. Once he saw the looks on Elliot's and Kirk's faces though, the smile faded from his.

Bob sighed. He was aware of what had happened between Michael and Stephanie earlier. "Look, all they did was uh, was kiss. We're all adults here," he explained. The only thing that he was concerned about was the fact that this was all right after Stephanie had brought up he time with Carl. He could see that Michael liked her, he just didn't want her leading him on because her memories of marriage caused her to feel like she needed someone right then and there.

"Speak for yourself," Elliot remarked, looking to Kirk.

"We said we weren't going to bring that up!" Kirk hissed.

"Bring what up?" Elliot smugly questioned.

Larry raised his hand. "I vote that if we don't wanna bring something up, that we don't have to," he stated.

"Um sure, why, why not?" Bob responded, dumbly looking between the two. He figured though, that it was best to just not know what happened.

"I think we should go home," Stephanie insisted.

"Why? So you can get it on with the kiss up over here?" Elliot inquired, causing both Stephanie and Michael to look to him with surprise.

"I would like to take this time to remind miss Stephanie that we are leaving tomorrow," Larry announced.

"I would like to take this time to suggest that hotlips over here gets a better boyfriend," Elliot said and then looked to her.

"I'll pay you to stay away from me," Stephanie offered.

"Deal," Elliot replied and then went back to staring forward.

"I for one, cannot be bought out," Kirk informed them.

Elliot just glared to him. He wasn't even about to catch him on lying, he wasn't sure whether or not he was.

"I can't be either," Stephanie added. "At least, after Carl I can't be."

Michael looked over to her with interest. "So you don't care about how much money I have?" he asked.

Stephanie did care a little, but he seemed to be making enough. He worked in television. There was no point in bringing it up. "You make enough," she assured him.

Bob rolled his eyes. He knew what she meant. He then noticed that Joanna hadn't talked at all. "How about you Ms. Richardson?" he questioned, trying to bring her into the discussion, if that was what you would call it.

Joanna looked up to him. "What?" she asked. She had been preoccupied with her own thoughts.

"We're talking about buying love," Larry explained.

"Oh," Joanna responded. "I don't think you can. If you love someone, you'll love them no matter what." Joanna then did the riskiest thing, at least in her mind it was, that she had ever done. "What do you think Doctor Hartley?" she inquired.

"I, I agree. Emily and I would still love each other if we were broke," Bob replied.

"You have to believe that, you're wife's hot," Kirk stated.

"I believe it," Joanna responded before Bob could say anything. He and Emily loved each other and that was it. There was no changing that. Never.

"One time I paid to have a couple split up," Stephanie confessed. "I wanted to go out with this boy in high school and he was already dating this cheerleader."

Joanna looked up and sighed. "Again, if he actually truly loved her, I don't think that there would have been any amount of money that would made him change his mind about her," she explained, a bittersweet smile forming. She was trying her hardest to keep herself from crying. Although she had never thought about offering Bob money to leave Emily and go out with her, this whole talk was somehow some sort of confirmation for her. There was indeed, no way that she would ever have a chance with him.

"Excuse me," Joanna said before standing up and walking out the door.

The room fell quiet as they watched her leave. Kirk stood up and sighed. "Well it was obvious that she was talking about me with the love thing, so I think I'll go talk to her," he volunteered.

"You wish," Elliot scoffed.

Bob stood up. "How uh how about I go talk to her?" he suggested. He felt if Kirk went and talked to her, things would be made worse.

Ooo

Joanna sat down on the ground against the tree next to the lake. Yes, it was dirty, but she stopped caring. She hugged her knees to her chest as she watched the sunset over the lake. It was quiet, and it was what she needed.

In there, back in that group, she felt like her future had crumbled before her. It was always obvious that she would never get her chance with Bob, but it was being shoved in her face back there.

Worse yet, she couldn't tell him. She couldn't just go in there and tell Bob that she had feelings for him. He was the reason why her standards were so high. He was the reason why she was having such a hard time finding someone else. She was scared to try it with anyone else. She didn't trust them like she trusted him. The other men could turn out to be like Carl, but she knew that Bob never would. He was the security blanket that she could never have.

This was the day though, that she had to move on. She had to tell Bob the truth, and she had to leave the group. After this, she couldn't be his patient anymore. It would hurt her to go on seeing him every week and knowing that she could never be his.

She couldn't back out like she did the first time. Tomorrow was going to be the last day that she would see him, and that was going to be it. She just couldn't go on torturing herself like this. As much as he had helped her in other areas, there was one in which he was holding her back, and it was the most important one to her now.

"D-did, something happen back there that I should know about?" Bob questioned.

Joanna looked over and saw him standing beside the tree. "No," she sighed. She was starting to wonder whether or not it was actually worth it to tell him what was going on. Maybe she could just stop coming to the group.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

Maybe she had better just tell him. That way he could tell her that he could no longer be her doctor and then she could move on. It was a hard decision to make, but she had to make it now. "Actually," se began and then got to her feet. "I, I uh..."

Once she looked to his eyes, it was hard to spit out what she needed to say.

"Would you like to go with that?" Bob implored, trying to get her to just say it.

"I can't be your patient anymore," she blurted out.

"Well, okay," Bob started, slightly taken by surprise. "I could recommend a few other doctors if you want," he offered. As he stood there and thought about it, he was starting to catch on to what was happening here. She talks about being afraid of ending up alone, then gets upset when they start to talk about the time that she wanted out of the group, and then now, she gets upset when they talk about how love can't be bought. It wasn't all that hard to see. He just wasn't going to bring it up though.

"You're not going to ask why?" she implored.

"I guess I figure that if you wanted me to know that uh you would've told me when you said you couldn't be my patient anymore," he answered.

Joanna nodded, looking down towards the ground. "I guess I would have," she whispered more to herself. Looking back up, she sighed. "I guess I should confess something," she began, really wanting to tell someone.

"Yeah?"

Joanna tried once more to speak, but the words wouldn't come out. Instead, she stood there, frozen. Without thinking about it, she quickly leaned in and planted a small, quick kiss on his lips. It lasted less than a millisecond, but it got the point across.

It was as soon as she pulled back and saw the look of utter confusion and shock on his face that she realized how dumb what she had done really was. Her cheeks started to feel hot as they turned red from embarrassment. "I'm sorry Doctor Hartley," she quickly stated and then turned and started for the cabin.