Dr. Rudnick’s office- Monday

Alice’s session continued

Dr. Rudnick smiled at Alice and patted her on the knee,

“Now,” she said in an affected voice, “Tell me about your mother.” Alice laughed, grinning at the doctor.

“You’re joking, right?”

“Partially,” Stella admitted. “What I would like to hear from you
is what relationships or history you think might be relevant as to why
you were so sure your lover and best friend would betray you at the
first invitation?”

“Oh, that,” Alice nodded.

The women exchanged a smile.

“Dr. Rudnick. I’m pretty sure I could go through several years worth of
therapy on why I’m so fucked up,” Alice admitted. “But I’d hoped to
give you the reader’s digest version for now and concentrate on the
Dana stuff if that’s okay? I just kind of feel like time is of the
essence here.”

“You feel in a rush to resolve all this?”

“I think there are windows of opportunity in life and in relationships.
You make your move during those moments or the window closes,” Alice
told her. She blushed a bit, hoping she didn’t sound like a self-help
book.

Stella studied her for a moment.

Laughing she said, “I can’t tell if that was a very creative attempt to avoid my question or a simple observation.”

Alice laughed with her, “Okay. Okay. My mother” she shook her head. “Maybe I should lie on the couch for this.”

Stella waited.

“I’m not sure what Dana’s told you about our families and childhoods?
Our backgrounds couldn’t have been more different. She grew up living
the fairy tale, the whole works: Mom and Dad, loving little brother,
the same house, same school, and the same friends. Dana comes from a
stable, two-parent home with over bearing and politically frightening
but ultimately very loving parents.”

“I come from. Lenore.” With that, Alice arched her eyebrows at the therapist and folded her arms over her chest.

“Lenore is your mother?”

“Biologically. We role-play.” Alice joked.

Dr. Rudnick waited.

“Look. Doc. I really don’t want to sit here and do the ‘Cat’s make
better parents than my mother did’ session. I really don’t. I know my
mom wasn’t June Cleaver.”

Stella frowned gently at the blonde still folded up in front of her.

“Why don’t you talk about Lenore in terms of Dana then? How do you
think your different backgrounds influence your approaches to this
relationship?”