"Afternoon, Malcom." The much younger woman greeted her patient as he sank into the chair across from her.
"Hey," he replied limply, hardly lifting his hand from the arm of the chair to give a weak wave.
She pointed at the older man with one finger, casually flicked out from her folded hands, "What's up? Not like you to be this clearly upset."
He rubbed both temples with one hand, thumb and forefinger stretched across his forehead and his hand shielding his face. "It's bad, Nancy."
"Hopefully we can sort that out."
He dropped his hand to the arm of the pale upholstered chair and looked at the woman. He sighed, trying to figure out where to start.
Nancy gave him a moment, but seeing he was stalled asked, "What happened?"
He looked at his lap then up at her before his gaze drifted to the window. "I slept with my partner's daughter."
"Partner?" She asked, trying to determine what kind of partner.
He turned his pale blue eyes from the window to her professionally neat, unassuming face. "Harv. We've been friends for," he paused, drifting across nearly half a.century to his childhood, "I dunno, 50 years? We've been business partners for half that time."
"I was the best man at both of his weddings. He was the best man at mine and let me live in his pool house for a month when I got divorced."
Nancy gave a sagely nod, "I can see how this is stressful, can you tell me how this happened?"
The older man looked between his feet as he tried to find his words. Not the right words, just some words that fit together.
"She - Vickie, Victoria -" Vickie mattered in this, Nancy knowing her name seemed important, "was studying abroad and just came home after the year. Big coming home party at Harvey's place. The kind of thing I'd been to over there a thousand times. Hell, I went to most of Vickie's birthday parties when she was a kid. "
He shook his head, trying to clear it of the creepy, predatory feeling that hung like a stalking shadow. It dispersed to the recesses of his mind for the moment and he jerked back to the more recent past.
"Turns out she failed everything. Complete waste of a year. Harv is pissed, disappointed, trying to salvage a party that's a total shit show. His ex it there, she's pissed too. Alice, Vickie's stepmom, is upset too, she loves her like she's her own and has always been good to, and with, Vickie."
"Kid's feeling pretty busted so I have her get us a couple of beers and sit her at the patio table while her friends swim and her dad cooks burgers and tries not to scowl."
"I figure, it's not a total loss - learning from failures, the adventure and personal growth of a year away from home. I dropped out of college and started pouring concrete while Harv got a degree in engineering. Business needs us both... So I want to let her know, it's not all over. The expanse matters too."
"Seems like a caring, supportive approach." Nancy offered, trying to plant her own seed that things weren't always a total disaster.
"That's kinda what I thought. Anyway, I ask her what happened and she hems and haws around, and finally says she started partying, drinking, skipping class - that's not Vickie. You don't just start partying - something happens. So I asked. Boy seemed the most likely thing, but she shook that off. I asked if it was a girl, I could see how worrying about her mom, dad and Alice's reactions could be scary, but that was an easy no too."
Mac started fidgeting, "So I sat there, looking at her like, 'Don't BS me' and she says, 'It was a man. An older man."
He nodded to himself more than Nancy, "I could see why that might cause a problem. Harv would have taken - will take? that worse than a girl. I asked why she started partying with this guy, but it was after he dumped her because she wouldn't have sex with him."
He stared out the window for a long moment, losing himself in a solitary bird pinioning it's way over the crowded street. He sighed and looked back at the therapist.
"Here's the dumb part. I was still in 'the experience is the important part of learning' mode' and said, 'Why not?'"
Nancy gave him a doubtful look, "It sounds like maybe your were setting it up. Were you?"
"I don't think so. In the moment it seemed like if I was that kid, I'd've fucked him. But she said she wanted her first time to be special. I told her your first time will be special. It will be awkward, scary, exciting and will leave you wondering if you did the right thing and somehow still be the most amazing experience.... Next thing you know, she follows me into her dad's office. I'd headed there to get some space, but she showed up and asked me about my first time. I told her how the girl's kisses tasted like grape lip gloss and even the smell of grape soda takes me right back to that moment."
"Could you have said something else? Maybe not shared that kind of information."
He nodded, "Easy to see that now. So begs me to wait there in Harv's office with the bottle of scotch I bought him for his birthday. She goes and finds a goddamn grape Lip Smacker... One thing leads to another..."
"So, tell her that it was wrong. That you feel like you took advantage of her and it needs to stop."
"We had that conversation while we had sex. We agreed that would be best."
"So what's the problem?"
"We really like each other and neither of us are willing to do that."
Nancy sighed. "Yeah, that's going to be a problem. Look, Mac, I can't tell you what's right, but this could cost you a lifelong friendship, your business.-"
"Or the love of my life" he interrupted.