This was going to be a tough session.
***
Alanna left around lunchtime, done with her sessions for the day. She had studying to do, so she headed to the library. She wasn’t fully accredited yet, which meant that she was affordable and therefore not swimming in cash. She was fulfilling her training hours (guided by her supervisor) and, most likely, all her clients could afford. She tried to do her best for them, even if she was still learning. Though she’d always vowed that when she was fully accredited, she’d leave open as many cheap sessions as she could afford to. Broke people needed as much help as anyone else.
She was thinking about that when she walked in and caught Benjamin running the kitchen sink tap on every item of makeup she owned.
‘What in the fuck is this?!’ she cried.
With the water running full blast, Benjamin hadn’t heard her come in, and he turned in surprise. ‘I thought you weren’t back until six?’ he asked irritably.
She looked at him aghast. ‘I say again, Benjamin.What the fuck is this?’
He looked down at the sink. Pallets and pencils and pots, all ruined. He’d even unscrewed her mascara and with what had to have been remarkable patience, filled the tiny hole with water to really get the job done. He’d been truly thorough. But despite the mad scene he had orchestrated, he looked cool as you like. ‘I was just sorting out the problem.’
‘What problem? What did I donow?’ Alanna asked.
‘I found another smudge. On the bedroom pillow.’
That was no shock. She’d screamed into her pillow yet again this morning after Benjamin had complained about toast crumbs. Or, as it turned out, crumb. One single crumb on a sofa cushion. Benjamin had gone on and on about it, and Alanna had been forced to take to the pillow. She supposed she had known what would happen. That there would be a smudge and an argument. Perhaps this was her way of bringing things to a head with Benjamin. Well, the head was here. He’d destroyed her things. Whatever she’d expected the end of this to be, she couldn’t say she’d ever suspected he would go this low. ‘Youmotherfucker.’
Benjamin looked shocked. ‘Alanna, that’s a bit much.’
‘It’s really not,’ Alanna said, feeling her head filling with heat and steam in need of release. For a while now.
‘Look, I just thought that you could stop wearing it. You look better without it anyway. Problem solved.’
She stared at him. ‘This doesn’t solve the problem. Because the problem isyou.’
Benjamin’s surprised expression slipped into anger. ‘Me? We both said we’d work on this. You said you would. You didn’t. That’s how we ended uphere.’
‘Yeah, well, I’m done working, I think. Yep, I’m wrapping the job up. We’re done.’
Benjamin gasped. ‘You’re finishing with me?Youare finishing withme?’ He started laughing.
‘I’d love to know where this is going,’ she muttered to herself. She was really happy to feel herself fully checking out of this relationship. She’d held on tight to this person for much longer than she should have.
‘I’m as good as you’ll get. You know that, don’t you?’ he told her.
‘Oh yeah?’ Alanna asked, walking into the bedroom. She grabbed the remaining pillow and held it up. ‘Do go on.’
‘I’m nice-looking and I have a good job and I have good manners…’ Benjamin itemised as he walked in. He stopped his list when he saw the pillow in Alanna’s hands. ‘What are you doing?’
She smiled at him and then pressed the pillow to her face, smearing her makeup all over it as hard as she could.
‘You fuckingpsycho!’ he screamed.
Alanna laughed as she threw the pillow back on the bed. ‘You better get your pre-soak going, Benjamin.’
‘That’s it. We’redone,’ he snapped.
‘I’m pretty sure that’s what I toldyou,’ she pointed out.
‘Whatever,’ he spat.
In total unison, they announced, ‘You should go,’ to each other. They both paused. ‘No,you’regoing,’ Alanna said.
‘Ha, as if you could afford the rent on your own. Trainee counsellor! You make shit.’
