The Love Triangle

She sat there with her back at ninety degrees on the backrest of the purple chair, her legs crossed and a cup of water on the table right in front of her.

She was staring at Agatha, she looked as attentive as she could yet her mind was everywhere but the room she was in. Her sight had gradually gone blurred from staring at Agatha’s lips, and though she could hear the words that came out of her mouth she wasn’t listening to any of them.

It was typical for her to lose interest in the first few minutes after Agatha starts to speak – she has been coming since her mother died two months.

She could have stopped the therapy sessions if Agatha wasn’t the easiest person to speak to in her life. Agatha listening skills were worth every penny paid: she nodded when necessary, smiled gracefully and never interrupts or judged, at least not directly. But the moment Agatha starts to speak…

“Helen” Agatha called, “are you okay?” she asked.

Helen wished she could be honest with her sometimes. It was the only thing in her life she hid from Agatha – to tell Agatha she didn’t pay for the session to listen to a specialist’s advice on what to do nor did she swallow those pills she recommended rather she came for the attention she couldn’t get from anywhere else, not when the two people in her life other than Agatha were almost always busy.

Helen nodded and forced a fake smile on her face.

“Have you been taking those pills?” Agatha asked.

Helen nodded. Of course, it was a lie.

Helen suffered from insomnia. Most nights had a typical routine: staring at the roof, walking aimlessly around her room, staring at the television and imagining things except for the weekends when Alex was around. She took her pills for a few days after her mom died but it hadn’t been doing much help, at least that was what she believed, so she took them when she felt like it and let the unlucky majority down the toilet or any drain (even Agatha’s office toilet sometimes). Apart from paying for the therapy sessions that she didn’t really need it was the second biggest waste of her inheritance.

“Good,” Agatha said, “You should be done with it, I believe?”

She nodded again.

Agatha detached a piece of paper from the sticky note on the table and started to write as she spoke, “you’d need to get some more of this and don’t forget you have got one chance to…

…this thing called life, Helen completed the sentence in her thoughts.

Helen came out of the office and as usual, plugged her AirPods. She’d not leave anywhere without those things. Her philosophy was simple if you want to shut the world out, put on your AirPods at the peak of their volume. She pressed on the Elevator and walked in before she noticed him running toward her waving his hands. She quickly stopped the elevator and removed the AirPods from her ear.

“I am so sorry,” Helen said for formality’s sake,

He scurried in.

“Thank you,” he said, trying to catch his breath.

“You are welcome,” she said as she had a glance at his face. She couldn’t help but notice his baby blue eyes; she had a strange love for any eye colour different from hers. He wore a nicely fitted black suit which made her think he must be one of the therapists in the building and at the same time his unbuttoned white inner shirt – that exposed his broad chest – makes her see him as something else. As another “Tony” she whispered as she tried to fix her AirPods back to her ear.

“What are you listening to?” He asked, facing the door as she did too.

She heard him. She wasn’t meant to hear him. She must have turned down the volume while trying to remove the AirPods. So much for silencing the world…. She turned to him and caught a little more on his look. His dark hair had a few grey strands that made them even more stylish:  He looked just perfect with perfect straight line jaws like an Arabian Prince or like those handsome Hollywood actors or models walking down the aisle on one of those Paris runways. If he worked as a therapist in the building then he must be every lady’s favorite.

“What are you listening to?” his voice came out tenderly and intentional.

She removed the AirPod from her left ear, “Dark Love” she said, “by Bleeder”.

She wanted to ignore him for the fact that he reminded her of Tony but at the same time didn’t want to act all rude, not yet. She was about to return the AirPods and this time she’d make sure it is so loud he’d be able to hear the song playing out of the pods.

“You listen to Bleeder?” he asked with a smile before she could plug the pods on, “I am a big fan too”

“Really,” Helen said still holding the pods only a few inches from her ear.

“Damn yeah,” He said nodding his head “What’s your favourite album?”

She raised her eyebrow like she was trying to come up with one, “hmm, probably December’s Spring?”

“Me too,” he said with a chuckle, “the album is so electrifying”

The coincidence had her spread a smile but it faded faster than it came – he is probably lying. She has seen guys use this approach too many times for her to take them seriously. Not only is the pickup popular even Tony used it on her. She could trace the first conversation she had with Tony to a movie. He wore a brown shirt, the sleeve rolled up and his button, of course, wasn’t to the top. He had a simple yet nicely carved hairstyle on his blonde hair and he had his contact lens on, his eyes glowed green. His cologne was just perfectly her taste. They met at a friend’s party and they started to talk about movies. She later found out, that he wasn’t even a movie person. As a matter of fact, the five movies they talked about that day were the only movies he saw.

“What is your favourite track?” Helen asked with the hope of exposing him because If he thinks he could play that card on her then he must be…

“Back in Time” he answered immediately, “Don’t ask me to sing it though”