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She was happy, going for her session the next day for some reason. She had to admit though that people were partly right; talking about your problems really does feel okay. She still had no solutions to said problems, but she was still better than she was before she let them out. She was in a sky blue tucked-in button down shirt and skinny black stripped office pants with a milky-brown coat reaching her mid thighs. She was particularly excited today for a reason she knew but didn't want to acknowledge.

When she arrived at the hospital, she walked straight into his office as she was told to do in a text from him she found on her phone this morning. How he got her number was beyond her. Walking into his office, she turned around to close the door properly while asking,

 "How in the hell did you get my number, Romano?"

 She turned around right then and was instantly greeted with an almost shirtless Bruno. He was just doing his buttons when she turned around.

"Why would you tell me to walk right in if you knew you'd be half naked, Bruno?!", she yelled at him after immediately turning around to stare at the door instead. She heard him chuckle, but that was it. Seconds later, she felt warmth on her back and realised he had walked to her and was now standing very close to her body. He was at least barely six measly inches away. It made her uncomfortable but for some reason, she didn't want to shove him back just yet. 

"Because I wanted to seduce you.", he answered her question in a low velvety voice that almost made her melt. Weird. This guy was definitely weird. 

Forcing out a laugh, she went on to say, "You? Seduce me?", she said trying her best to insinuate impossibility. She prayed he wouldn't notice the shakiness in her tone which was caused by his proximity.  "That really is funny, and weird, Bruno. What are you doing?", she gulped. 

He only chuckled once again then said, "You can turn around now. I'm dressed." He made no move to take a step back from her. 

 He was being completely playful again, before, there was an air of playfulness but it was mixed with—she couldn't believe she was thinking this—sin. 

"You're too close.", she stated shakily, still facing the door to his office. She heard him step back seconds after she thought he was—sniffing her? 

Turning around, she narrowed her eyes at him while he just smiled at her. "Good morning.", he greeted. 

"Yeah, great. Pretend that very awkward scene didn't just happen!", she responded almost angrily. He simply turned his back on her and proceeded to sit on his chair in front of the couch. 

"What annoys you, Miss Asher?", He asked a simple question, but the way her name fell from his lips made her knees buckle slightly. She almost hurriedly sat on the couch before she resumed narrowing her eyes again. 

"You!", she exclaimed. "Why did you even ask me to come here? Don't you get other patients?"

He chuckled, "What, not who, Mei."

"Don't be a smartass.", she rolled her eyes. 

"Okay, my uncle's out again, so he asked me to keep you company."

She narrowed her eyes at the weirdness of that explanation. "What is he always doing in the mornings that's more important than his work?"

"You can ask him that when you see him, Mei.", he chuckled. 

 "So what besides me annoys you?", he got back to his question. 

Sighing she answered him, "Bad grammar." 

"What else? Go on."

"Clutter. Disorganization. People. My parents."

"Oh and how are your parents?

"Dead.", she stated, simply, staring directly at him. 

 "How?"

"Dad: plane crash. Mom: suicide ."

 "You don't seem disturbed.", he observed. 

"Good job, Sherlock.", she retorted. 

"Why don't you seem to care that they're dead and gone forever?"

 "Because they were a pain in my ass!"

 "Everyone's parents are pains in their asses, Mei."

 "Well, mine more than others, okay!?", she really didn't want to be talking about this with him. He might also be a psychologist, but he wasn't her psychologist. 

"I don't want to talk about this with you.", she voiced her thoughts quietly. 

He looked at her, looked at her eyes, then smiled a sympathetic smile. One that made her feel warm inside. "Yeah, I get that. I'm sorry, okay?"

She rolled her tear filled eyes and sighed a tired sigh. "I'm tired.", she stated and somehow, she knew, he knew she didn't mean of the questions, she meant of her life.

 "Have you even tried to love yourself, Mei?", he asked her. That playful edge was long gone. 

"I don't wanna try. What even is the point of trying when I'm just gonna end up picking out all the things about me that I hate myself for?"

"And that's the damn problem, Mei! You don't wanna try. The point of trying to, is so you can come to terms with the fact that there are things you can't control, but it's no reason to hate yourself.", he sounded annoyed to her. She wasn't surprised, this is why she didn't talk to people, everyone got mad after a few minutes; their attention to her troubles was temporary. 

"You're angry.", she made her observation known. 

"Damn right I'm angry! You don't see what I see and it annoys the crap out of me, Mei! I want you, desperately, to see what I see when I look at you! Yes, I see that you're broken and damaged and angry with the world for whatever reason you make yourself believe, but I also see other things, dammit!", he whisper-yelled at her. She didn't know why, but she started to quietly sob, which soon turned into a full-on crying session. She hated that she was this way,  hated that he seemed to care this much about her, and somewhat pleased that he did. She sniffed multiple times before she looked up at him and what she saw almost amazed her; sincere concern. It was foreign to her for the most part. The only other face she'd seen it on was Ava's, and honestly, she just chalked it down to it being part of Ava's job to care. 

She didn't know exactly when she leaped from her seat, but she threw herself into his arms and hugged the tightest she had ever hugged anyone. 

She loved it. The last time she had hugged someone this tight, was when she was ten and that person was her mom. Almost a minute passed and they were still joined together in a hug. They were now in a weird position due to the fact that he was sitting and she was slouching over him. Noticing the position, he stood from his seat and hugged her properly; crushing her body to his.

Almost another minute later, she broke the hug and took steps back to sit back on the sofa. He followed suit, neglecting his chair and sitting on the sofa next to her, leaving a considerable distance between both of them.

 "I'm sorry.", she apologised for something she really couldn't pin point at that moment.  

"Don't apologise to me for anything right now.",  he warned sternly. She sniffed before answering him, 

"You're not supposed to care this much, you know. It's bad for your job.", she pointed out. 

"What did I tell you?", he asked and she shrugged so he continued. "I said we're friends. So get that into your," his index finger poked the side of her forehead, "little head.", he dropped his finger. 

She chuckled lightly, "Are doctors and patients supposed to be friends?" She was teasing him. 

He shrugged, "Because of the nature of my job, as I am a counselling psychologist, I can be friends with whomever I want. Plus I hate to be the one to remind you, but I'm not your doctor, remember?", the playfulness was back again. 

"Thank you... For caring. When you stop though, I'll still be thankful.", she smiled a tight smile. 

He laughed, "Are you trying to bait me into telling you us being friends is going to end once you're done with your sessions? It's not that temporary, Mei." 

"But ultimately, it is, Bruno. It's going to end one day.", she stated.  

"I'm elated you've taken to calling me Bruno. I've never loved the sound of my name better than when it comes from those lips.", he smiled a half smile at her. 

She giggled! For the first time in a really long time, she giggled at something a man said to her. The last time she giggled was when she watched a romcom some nights ago. It was a weird sound, she thought. "You're not gonna seduce me, Bruno.", she teasingly said to him. 

He shrugged, "Eh, worth a shot. And you're right, I wouldn't know for sure if this were temporary or not but right now, I don't believe it is. That's enough for you I hope." 

"It is.", she stated while playing with her fingers. Wait! What the heck was she doing?! She was never nervous to the point of playing with her damn fingers! The half smile was back again, along with his finger on her face. He seemed to be brushing unruly strands of curly hair from her face. She scrunched her eyebrows in thought, reason being that at the contact of his fingers with her face, she felt something in her stomach region. Weird, she thought. "Stop thinking, Mei.", he said as he smiled. 

'Writing and experiencing were totally different!', she thought.

In that moment, someone barged into the office and slammed the door and immediately, the smile on Bruno's face vanished, almost like magic, Mei thought and chuckled; she was doing a lot of that lately. 

"Oooh!", the man who had barged into the office exclaimed, "Did I interrupt something?", he asked. 

Bruno heaved a sigh and answered, "You always interrupt something, Malcolm. Stop doing this dude! One day you're going to cost me a client." 

"Hey! I met my wife this way, you know.", Malcolm lamely argued. 

"Another reason you should stop.", Bruno said massaging his forehead tiredly. Sighing, he raised his head again saying, "Mei, Malcolm. Malcolm, Mei.", he gestured his hand between them flippantly. 

"He annoys you. I like him already.", she stated while giggling and put her right hand forward for Malcolm to shake. While they shook hands, she noticed that Malcolm looked a lot like Bruno. Her eyebrows shot up. 

"Ah, you must notice the face slapping resemblance. We're twins.", he cleared up for her. 

"Irish twins.", Bruno corrected.

"You willingly call yourself Irish twins?", she chuckled. 

"It's what I do to avoid calling him what he really is; a mistake.", Bruno said. 

 "Don't worry, he loves me.", Malcolm stated. 

"Yeah, and I'm starting to regret that.", Bruno muttered to himself while a dazed Mei just watched him and wondered why she never saw this part of him. Did he save his playful side for her? Or his patients in general? She was curious again.