John had a switch when he was drinking, and most of the time he knew right where it was. Five drinks. If he got to five the feel good chemicals took over and John began to howl at the moon. Tonight the switch was thrown, and at 2 in the morning he was downtown in a very busy bar. The John that was out at two in the morning was only a remnant of the therapist he was the majority of his life, and tonight this was especially true. His last stop of the night was at a dingy little jazz place in the city where he thought he could wind down with some cool music and put this day into the books. He was wrong.

Waking up the next day he reached over with a sense of pending doom. He saw a dark mane of hair peaking out from under his blanket and felt a great rush of disappointment rise up inside of him. He had been raised Catholic, and sex always came with a hint of shame attached to it. There was more to this feeling though he was sure. He felt something very sharp hit his side, and winced at the realization of the chain of events he was sure he had just put in motion.

He looked up and noticed it was already 11 O’clock. He sat up and tried to figure out his next move. He looked at the snoring unclothed woman laying there and wondered what she needed. He wasn’t a believer that people could have casual, meaningless sex, as he had seen way too much evidence to the contrary. Maybe she was just lonely and needed to feel close to someone. He certainly felt like that sometimes, and reasoned that as long as they were both consenting adults that perhaps this wasn’t that big of a thing to feel so guilty about it. These thoughts were interrupted however by a loud banging on the door. Thinking it was his nosy landlady he slowly ambled over to the door to see what the commotion was all about. He wasn’t remotely prepared for what was at the door. It was Stephanie, holding a carton with coffee and bagels and looking even better then he remembered. Damn.

“Can I come in?”

“Uh, wow, it’s kind of amazing to see you,” was John’s reply.

“Uh yea, you too buddy, that’s why I asked to come in, I’ve been thinking about you.”

Before John could respond to this, he heard a noise in the background, and he felt a familiar feeling of dread rise up inside of him. Soon his worst fears were confirmed, when his houseguest appeared behind him scrambling around looking for her clothes.

“Hey guys,” she said shyly, “sorry to interrupt, but I have to get to work today.”

Stephanie took a long look at John and slowly turned to walk away.

“Wait, I, I wanted to talk to you, can I call you?” he asked pleadingly.

“You don’t seem to be ready for me today John,” she said sharply.

“And by the way doctor, there’s a person in there with you who might also need a little bit of your time.”