The Boss Project

Merrick shook his head. “In hindsight, I think she was doing the same thing as I was—going so the therapist could fix me.”

“She thought you were broken?”

“Just like I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t get closer to her, she couldn’t understand why I would want to.”

I nodded. “If you go into couple’s therapy hoping it will change your partner, that’s usually not a good sign. You have to be in the mindset that it will help you.”

Merrick tilted his mug at me. “Which is why I had an issue with my employees being required to go to therapy. They need to believe in it and want it for it to work.”

“True. But what we’re trying to accomplish in the office isn’t all that different from couple’s therapy. If you look at management as the people on the other side of the relationship with the employee, the goal is to get both parties to take ownership for things that happen and make changes to avoid a repeat in the future. Just like with couple’s therapy, if one side thinks it’s all the other side’s fault and are just waiting for them to change, it won’t work.”

Merrick nodded. “Okay. I get it. I’ll try to be more open. Can I ask you a question now?”

“Uh-oh. Does this mean you’re trying to get into my head?”

Merrick smiled. “I guess I learned from the best.”

I finished the biscuit mix and began spooning dollops into a muffin pan. “What’s your question?”

“You seem to get a solid grasp on people’s mental state so quickly. Yet you didn’t see what was going on with your fiancé?”

I shook my head. “Didn’t you ever hear about the plumber with leaky pipes?”

Merrick laughed. “I guess.”

“The bottom line is therapists are human. We’re trained to help others and look for certain things, but sometimes we don’t examine our own relationships enough.”

“How do you learn to trust again after going through what you did?”

“Are you asking for me or for you?”

Merrick shrugged. “I’m not sure anymore, doc.”

I smiled. “I think there’s always a risk in love. But when the right person comes along, we’ll feel like it’s worth taking that risk.”

Merrick looked into my eyes. My heart raced, and my belly felt all melty at the same time. But then his cell phone rang. He looked down. “It’s my grandmother. She probably wants to make sure I asked you about the monkey bread.”

He swiped to answer and lifted the phone to his ear, still looking at me. “Hey, Grams, what’s up?” He smiled. “Yes, Evie is making it right now.”

I turned around to put the tray in the oven and set the timer. The moment had been ruined, but it was just as well. Merrick didn’t seem anxious to continue our conversation after he hung up either.

“I’m going to go get ready while that’s in the oven,” I said.

He nodded. “I need to make some calls before we head to the hospital. I’ll do that in here and listen for the timer.”

“Thanks.”

When I came back, Merrick was on the phone with Will, his nose buried in some chart on his laptop screen. “Alright, that sounds like a plan,” he said. “Start slow on Monday, so we don’t set off any alarms with people watching us who might jump on without knowing why we’re buying.” He was quiet. “I’m not sure. If she gets out today, I’ll have a better idea. I want to see how she feels once she’s home. Yesterday I mentioned having a visiting nurse come in when I left, and she told me not to let the door hit me or the nurse in the ass on my way out. So we’ll see…”

I heard Will talking again, and then Merrick’s eyes jumped to me. “Don’t be a dick. Goodbye, Will.”

I chuckled as he swiped his phone off. “That conversation seemed to take a quick turn.”

Merrick shook his head. “It’s one of the dangers of working with your friend. He doesn’t know how to stick to business when he should.”

I opened the oven and took out the monkey bread, setting it on the stovetop to cool.

“Holy shit. That smells incredible,” Merrick said.