The Boss Project(60)

On Saturday morning, I slept later than I wanted to. Merrick was already showered and dressed, drinking coffee in the kitchen when I walked in. He held up his mug and smiled.

“Morning, sleepyhead.”

“I can’t believe how late it is—almost seven thirty. Why didn’t you wake me? Kitty can be discharged as early as eight.”

“She called this morning. She developed a fever last night, so they’re doing some bloodwork now to make sure it’s not an infection.” He shook his head. “If she gets out today, it’s definitely not going to be early. So I figured I wouldn’t wake you.”

“Oh no. That’s not good. An infection after surgery can be serious.”

He nodded. “Hers is a low-grade fever, right at a hundred. The nurse made the mistake of telling Kitty that some people can go home if the fever is very low. But someone her age they usually keep to monitor.”

I covered my laugh with my hand. “Oh shit. And that nurse now has a cast that matches Kitty’s.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised.”

I sat down at the table across from Merrick. His eyes fell to my chest and lingered, causing me to look down. Shit. I’d forgotten to put on a bra. It was warm in my bedroom, but the kitchen window was wide open, and the temperature change had my nipples peaked against my thin T-shirt.

Merrick cleared his throat and looked away. “Anyway, Kitty asked me to ask you if you would mind bringing her some monkey bread. I don’t know what that is, but she said you’d know.”

I smiled. “It was my grandmother’s specialty. It’s sort of like a cinnamon bun, but made into a cake. My grandmother made it with southern-style biscuits and loads of sticky cinnamon-sugar icing. Not exactly healthy, but everyone loved it, especially Kitty.”

“Where do we get some?”

“I make it.” I stood and walked over to the fridge. “It doesn’t take very long. If she has all the ingredients, I can make the buns and then hop in the shower while they cook.” I started to pull out things I’d need. “It looks like she only has one stick of butter, and I’ll need more than that.”

“Make me a list. I’ll run to the store.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Not at all.”

“Okay.” I finished searching the cabinets and wrote down three things I needed. “I’ll get in the shower while you’re gone to save time.”

He nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

A little while later, we were back in the kitchen together. I tossed the biscuit ingredients into a bowl and started to whisk. “Can I ask you something?”

“No.”

I turned to look at Merrick. He grinned. “I’ve learned that whenever you say, ‘Can I ask you something?’, it means you want to get inside my head.”

“I think you’re exaggerating.”

He sipped his second cup of coffee. “I’m not. But I was teasing. What do you want to ask?”

“Last night you said you’d had a bad experience with therapy. Why do you feel it didn’t work out? I’m not asking to pry into your problems but to understand your experience in a clinical way.”

Merrick rubbed along the rim of his coffee cup a moment. “I’m not sure you can fix things the patient doesn’t perceive as broken.”

“Are you referring to Amelia or yourself?”

He shrugged. “I don’t even know anymore. To be really honest, it was my idea to go to couple’s therapy, but I didn’t feel like we needed therapy. I mostly did it because I was hoping someone could fix Amelia. She was the type of person you could only get so close to or get to know so much. She had a wall she kept up. I guess I thought the therapist could help break it down or something.”

“Was she receptive to therapy?”

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?”