Begin Again novel Chapter 166

"What the hell happened to you?" His therapist couldn't hide her horror when he strolled into her office.

The perplexed look on her face and her unusually shrill tone was a first for Liam.

She was always apathetic to a point he had convinced himself she was really an android masquerading as a human.

He was secretly pleased and somewhat perturbed to see Linda was just a mere mortal like him, and her cold mask of apathy slips off once in a while.

"I need a fucking drink," he announced as he crossed the room and paused in front of the window and watched the fine droplets slide down the pane.

It had begun to hail soon after he left Eden's place, but the torrential storm had lost its steam and fizzled out into a drizzle, pretty much like his feelings.

Fighting with Eden always left him drained.

"Linda, where's my fucking drink?" He asked without turning back from the window.

"This is not a pub, Liam!" She snapped but rummaged through her cabinets anyway and came back with a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.

She poured them both a shot and tipped her glass in his direction.

Liam knocked his drink back in one go, his eyes watering a little as the oaky bitterness scalded his throat.

Linda's cheap whiskey hit him hard almost instantly, and the room whirled in front of him. But he held out his hand for more. He'd take a spinning room over the heavy rock in his heart any day.

His therapist looked like she was about to refuse, but something in his eyes made her think twice. She topped him up, begrudgingly though, and carried on nursing her drink.

Like his first, he gulped down his second shot quickly, and when he asked for a third, Linda firmly put her foot down and pulled out her notebook.

"Let's begin," she motioned for him to sit.

Liam dutifully slumped on the sofa, and they spent the first eight, maybe ten minutes in complete silence. He was in no hurry to talk, so he just sat there and tried to compartmentalise his thoughts and emotions.

Linda was happy to keep him company as she quietly took notes in her brand new journal. Two years of venting about Eden had finally led to a new notebook.

How long would it take to fill this one up, he wondered as he stared at the pattern on the ceiling. For some reason, it annoyed the fuck out of him today. But then again, what didn't?

Everything pissed him off today, and the reason for his discontent—his hell, his paradise—was probably still in her living room, bawling her eyes out.

The thought sobered him up instantly, and he massaged his chest and stared longingly at Linda's drink. One more shot would soothe the ache in his heart for sure.