GAME OF SEDUCTION

INTRO

She is thinking about her car, as the therapist speaks.
Thinking about the wind running through her hair, driving fast across the black roads, the salty smell of the ocean in her nostrils and no destination whatsoever. Just her, and her Jaguar. Driving. Faster. Faster. Faster.
“Shane”, Dr. Greenbaum is saying.
She looks up at her with her lips parted, her face expressionless. She is sitting on a chair in the middle of the studio.
Dr. Greenbaum finishes her notes and shakes her head.
“Shane, let’s try and focus. Jesus. We’ve been at this for six months”.
“I know”.
“And you haven’t made an ounce of progress”.
“I know”.
Shane takes out a cigarette and a silver lighter.
Dr. Greenbaum stares at her notebook.
“There’s no smoking in my office”.
Shane sneers at her, then puts the cigarette away.
“What do you want me to say?”, Shane mutters, flatly, “That I am supposed to feel remorse because I act the way I do? The truth is I don’t”.
Dr. Greenbaum shakes her head, sighing, and takes notes.
Shane chuckles.
“Look, my job satisfies me a lot. I mean, I like being a teaching fellow, but the only challenge out there for me is women. You see a girl you like. You pursue her. You conquer. You move on. It’s exciting”.
Dr. Greenbaum plays distractedly with her specs.
“But you said you have the worst reputation”.
“I do”. Shane nods.
“And don’t you want to change that?”, Dr. Greenbaum cuts in, arching her eyebrows.
Shane rests her elbows on her knees, leaning forward her.
“Let me tell you something, doctor. Chicks love a bad reputation. They say they don’t, but they don’t mean it. They all think that they’re the ones that are going to save me. The trick is to let them think it’s true”.
Dr. Greenbaum clenches her jaw and closes her notebook, getting up.
“I think that’s all the time we have for today”.
Shane gets up and smoothes down her black silk tie.
“Same time next week?”.
Dr. Greenbaum doesn’t look at her, she just scribbles down something on her planner.
“No. This is going to be our last session”.
Shane’s eyebrows arch in surprise.
“Why?”, she asks, “I like spending time with you. You know, you’re quite attractive for a woman your age”.
Her green eyes linger on the doctor’s legs.
“You have killer legs. Killer”.
Dr. Greenbaum doesn’t bother to look up.
“Shane, this isn’t a joke. Your parents spend a lot of money to send you here. I am trying to help you”.
“Don’t be insecure, doc. You’re a big help”, Shane smirks.
She walks to the shelves and picks up a book of Freud, flipping distractedly through the pages.
“He was a coke addict, you know”, she mumbles.
Dr. Greenbaum’s eyes dart in her direction, her anger barely hidden.
“You think you can come in here with that cute little smirk on your face and try and flirt with me”. She blinks, just once. “It doesn’t work, Shane”.
Shane puts the book back into its place.
“It works a little”.
“No, it doesn’t. I see right through you”.
The corners of Shane’s lips lift, slightly.
“You do?”, she asks.
Dr. Greenbaum stares at her severely.
“I hope for your sake you grow out of this immature phase. It’s going to get you into trouble”.
“Well, you don’t have to get nasty about it”, Shane replies nonchalantly.
She approaches a photo on the desk and picks it up.
“My daughter, Rachel”, the doctor says sitting at her desk.
“Yummy…”.
“Don’t ever think about it. Rachel is an exceptionally well rounded young woman, who happens to be attending Princeton this fall. She’s way too smart to fall for your line of bullshit”.
Shane giggles.
“Really? Care to make a wager on that?”.
Dr. Greenbaum puts her specs on and starts writing on her planner.
“Good luck, Shane”.
Shane chuckles again.
“What, nervous I’m going to win?”.
The doctor waves her hand in the air.
“Would you please leave?”.
Shane sighs. She puts on her glasses and walks to the door.
“Asshole”, Dr. Greenbaum mumbles when she hears her steps walking away.
She stews for a moment, then reaches into her desk, sifts through some papers where she finds a pack of Benson & Hedges and lights one up.
She looks at the photo of her daughter, then hits the speaker phone and dials.
“Hey Rachie, it’s mom”, she says sweetly, staring at the wide panorama outside the window.
“Hi mom…”, Rachel replies with a teary voice.
Dr. Greenbaum frowns.
“Honey, is something wrong?”.
She can hear her daughter cry through the receiver.
“…She told me she loved me and I believed her…”, she mutters croakily.
“Who told you?”, her mother replies in a concerning tone.
“…You…You don’t know her…”, Rachel sniffles, “…God, I’m so stupid”.
Dr. Greenbaum sighs heavily, leaning her back against her chair.
“Alright, honey. Just calm down, take a deep breath, and step out of the circle –“.
“Would you cut the psycho babble bullshit, mom!”, Rachel interrupts her, angrily, “There are pictures of me on the internet! Of me with a Princeton banner covering my… my…. My privates!”.
Dr. Greenbaum’s eyes pop up and her mouth opens wide like a drawer.
“Nudie pictures?! Jesus Christ, how can you be so stupid?!”.
“I don’t know… She was just so charming… All she did was talk about how I had killer legs and how she wanted to photograph them…”, Rachel bawls, “…Things just got out of hand from there and… Mom? Are you there? Mom?!”.
Dr. Greenbaum has dropped the phone.
She bolts out of her office and spots Shane standing in the elevator.
“You son of a bitch!”, she growls, racing down the hall and pushing several people out of her way.
“You’re gonna pay for this you little shit!! You hear me?!”
Shane is staring at her expressionless.
The elevator doors close just as her hand lifts, waving a polite hello.