A/N:
This chapter goes to bp_lalisa_ya, SerenitySerene, emery324B21, vipedal10383 and Weeb29ishere4u. Thank you for sharing your thoughts! 🤗❣
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"This one guy, he had a crazy obsession with My Little Ponies. Use to carry them with him to his appointments... in a purse! And not just any purse, but a Gucci! Not gonna lie, that man had taste. Creepy mo-fo... but I respect the Gucci," Gabrielle finished, giving a shout-out gesture to the Gucci gods.
This was the fourth time in just over a week that Lisa and Jennie were having lunch together at work, and somewhere along the way Gabrielle had gotten the impression that she was invited as well. So here they all sat, the three of them - Lisa practically choking on the spaghetti noodles that she had shoveled into her mouth during Gabrielle's "telling", Jennie just staring across the table in abject disbelief, and Gabrielle oblivious to it all. She didn't think Jennie appreciated Gabrielle divulging things about her patients, especially in such a public place. After safely swallowing her food, Lisa attempted to shift the conversation back to a safer topic, opting for the classic 'Why psychiatry?' line.
Jennie looked thoughtful for a moment while Gabrielle went back to texting some cousin she referred to as "George" about a suspicious amount of stereo equipment he procured overnight.
"You know, I'm not really sure. I mean, I didn't have anyone close to me who suffered from mental illness, and I didn't even have any experience with seeing a psychiatrist or therapist myself," she paused, contemplatively, "but I decided on the specialty pretty much from the beginning." Jennie bit off a chunk of her sandwich. "It truly is a rewarding profession, and really interesting. I think child psych is really where it's at for me. There's something more..." she paused "authentic about children. They are more emotionally raw than adults are. For a while I was working on the hospital's adolescent psych service, but I transitioned to private practice a couple of years ago. Now I see mostly middle-aged people going through divorces or midlife crises. I don't know if the switch to private practice was ultimately the right decision for me," she said quietly, looking down at her food, "but it seemed like it at the time."
Lisa understood that feeling all too well. There had been times in her adult life where she felt like she was at a crossroads of sorts and she needed to commit, one way or the other, no matter how it turned out. She didn't want to say that they were regrets necessarily, but they still left her wondering how different her life would have been had she just chosen the other path any one of those times.
"If you've been in private practice for a while now, how exactly did you meet Chris?" Lisa asked before she could stop herself. Lisa pinched the bridge of her nose and winced slightly, wishing she could club herself in the face for bringing him up and spoiling the nice lunch she was having. Why did she do this? It wasn't like she didn't just hear this exact story from him a mere week ago. She was such a glutton for punishment.
Jennie set her sandwich back on the plate and dusted the crumbs off on the napkin folded across her lap. "Well," Jennie drew out, taking a sip of water, "we originally met - oh gosh - almost a year ago. I had just moved here and had taken over the position at the clinic from Dr. Song who retired, and I was invited to present on the diagnosis of mental health disorders in children to the med students at the university. Chris was there... mmm... I can't even remember why he was there, exactly." Jennie gazed out the cafeteria windows looking at something - or nothing, Lisa couldn't tell. "Chris came down to the podium afterward to introduce himself and ask a few questions. I remember him being..." her brow furrowed slightly, "charming... and very handsome." Jennie continued, "A couple of months later, completely out of the blue, I received an email from him asking for some of the references from my lecture. Eventually the emails turned into phone calls and, as the weeks went by, the phone calls led to dinners, and... well... here we are," she shrugged her shoulders.
