An Excerpt from...

The Unraveling Therapist

by Erin Jae Bydlo

So, hi.

Do you remember I told you I had some IKEA chairs in my office? They lasted a good long time, ten years almost, but my friend Cooper, who I let use my office on the weekends (and in return he buys dinner for my family once in a while) called me to say one had broken over the weekend. So, Monday morning I went to Pier One and bought a couple sturdy leather chairs - cost me $900. I thought, I just won’t tell Declan, no problem, I’ll just wait until the next time he goes to my office and deal with it then.

So, the saleslady and I try to shove the chair in my trunk - no. Then, in the front seat - forget it. So, she gave me the phone number of a place that would move them for $100. What??? Forget it. Besides, I was dealing with two different Pier Ones. Had to go up north to get the second chair, and accomplish it all in an hour. So, I was standing in the street at the second Pier One, trying to call one of those airport taxi services, when up drives a young guy in a huge Dodge Ram truck. I was staring at that truck, licking my lips, kept looking down, then looking back, then down, then back...he parked at the Jamba Juice and I went over to him and said,

“Are you working?”

“Well, I was on my way to work...”

“Want to make a quick fifty bucks?”

“Okay!”

So he took the one chair, and drove to the other Pier One, and I parked there and we moved my chairs! It was funny, Erin’s moving service. He said he couldn’t take the chairs up to my office, and that was fine, I could just drag them upstairs if he left them in front of my building. So, he drove off and I pushed the chairs through my lobby to the 15th floor. Got them all in place, and, as is tradition around here, dragged the old stuff to the hallway (they were gone in 15 minutes). Then, I saw I had a text. Nick and I had been texting each other all day - I let him read a chapter of my book so he was commenting on it, so I was like, oh, let’s see what he has to say. And here is the message I got:

“I’d love to fold you back in one of those chairs and break them in properly...”

WHAT?

It was the moving guy, I had given him my number in case we got separated in traffic. I howled! Then I thought,

“Yes!!! I’ve finally lost enough weight!”

Wrote him back and said,

“You ROCK! I just lost 30 pounds, thanks for the compliment, but I’m married, boo.”

And he wrote back,

“Well, you look good, I’d definitely rock it...”

Very funny. So I left it at that, not really needing to get to know ol’ Don the Mover. I was dying to show the texts to Declan, but the quandary, I would have to tell him about the chairs! I finally just left it down to the wire -

“How much did you pay for the chairs?”

“Um, $500.”

“Well, okay.”

Okay, so I lied, but he thought the moving guy story was funny, and was proud of me. I said to Declan,

“Wow, I can’t believe that happened!”

And he said,

“You did come onto him.”

Well, yes, I did offer him a quick fifty bucks!

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The Unraveling Therapist

Soon to be available at

BARNES AND NOBLE.COM

                                                                                                                        AND AMAZON.COM

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