CHAPTER NINETEEN

Sitting in the therapist’s office was more than a little uncomfortable for Ramon. In his opinion he didn’t have any anger problems. Everything that occurred had been precipitated by Zoe. But if this was going to make her happy and keep her in his life, then so be it. He looked across the room as the woman casually walked in and he waited for her to start so that he could get this over with.

“Mr. Martinez, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to work with you,” Dr. Lyncs said as she walked over and extended her hand.

Ramon gave her a weak handshake but didn’t open his mouth to speak. He watched as she gathered her tablet and pen and took a seat directly across from him. He took notice of how pretty she was. He wasn’t normally into white chicks, but for her he’d make an exception. He watched as she crossed her legs and wondered what kind of panties she was wearing, if any at all. He envisioned himself tossing her up on her desk and screwing her until she begged for mercy.

“Mr. Martinez, are you with me?” Dr. Lyncs asked as she waved her hand in front of him.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I guess my mind drifted,” Ramon apologized. “And please, call me Ramon. I get nervous when people call me by my last name,” he joked.

“Alright then, Ramon, care to tell me where you were drifting off to?”

“Just thinking about work,” he lied.

“Well why don’t you tell me what brings you here today?” She asked although she saw from her pre-appointment notes that he apparently had anger issues. But still, she needed to hear him say why he was there.

“My girlfriend thinks I need anger management,” he replied bluntly.

“And what makes her think that?”

“We had an incident this past weekend where she started hitting me. When I couldn’t get her to stop, I hit her in the face. I didn’t mean to hit her as hard as I did, but it did stop her from beating up on me.”

Dr. Lyncs jotted down a few notes. While she was writing, Ramon again drifted to thoughts of him banging her. He wondered if she liked it rough, if she was a prude in bed, or if she was even having sex at all. He heard his name and looked from her legs to her eyes.

“So, Ramon, do you think that the end justified the means?” Dr. Lyncs asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you think that it was okay to hit your girlfriend if it made her stop hitting you?”

“I mean, I don’t think it’s okay to go around hitting women and I wish I hadn’t hit Zoe, but it’s also not okay for a woman to beat up on a man. I’m not trying to justify what I did, but at this point it is what it is. I’m not an abusive man and I’ve promised her that I’ll never hit her again.”

“Statistically speaking, if a man is violent with his mate once, he will likely be violent again.”

Ramon started looking at Dr. Lynch differently. In his eyes she started going from hot to bitchy. She hadn’t said anything offensive, but her talk about statistics seemed to Ramon as if she were telling him that he was guaranteed to hit Zoe again.

“I don’t really care about statistics. I said that I wouldn’t hit her again and that’s what I meant.”

Dr. Lyncs could see and hear his rapidly growing frustration. They’d barely scratched the surface and his agitation was very apparent, so much so that she was wondering how upset might he get as they continued on. “I can tell that you’re becoming a little annoyed with this situation. Is it my questions that are bothering you or the fact that you are even here?”

“Or maybe I’m annoyed because you’re making assumptions about me and you’ve only known me for ten minutes. You and Zoe both are making me out to be some monster,” he retorted.

“Why do you feel like we’re making you out to be a monster? That wasn’t my intention.”

“If Zoe weren’t trying to make me out to be some crazed man I wouldn’t be here. One incident and she gives me the ultimatum of therapy or she leaves me. You’re supposed to be a neutral party and yet you’ve already accused me of hitting her again. Why the hell wouldn’t I be agitated? This is all bullshit and you know it.”

“I didn’t accuse you Ramon. And it’s not my intention to upset you. I’m sorry that you feel you’ve been unfairly judged. The purpose of this is to help you better control your anger so that you won’t repeat the behavior.”

“There you go again, it’s not a behavior. A behavior is something that’s been repeated, I hit the bitch once,” Ramon spat angrily. “That’s what’s wrong with y’all, always trying to fix somebody when y’all ain’t got the common sense it takes to comprehend basic shit.”

“Who is y’all?” Dr. Lyncs asked.

“Don’t play stupid with me. Y’all as in women, the only people that are so smart you’re stupid. Think you know everything and you really know nothing!” Ramon was furious.

“You seem to have a very distorted view of women. Do you really believe that the entire gender is stupid?” she asked more out of curiosity. She also hoped that if she gave him a chance to vent it would help to calm him down. She was wrong.

“Every time you open your mouth you prove that my father was right. He’s the one that explained to me how brain dead y’all are. I tried my best not to believe him, but damn it, y’all keep proving him right. What kind of idiot thinks they can beat up on somebody and not get knocked the hell out? And you sitting here making assumptions and accusations and don’t expect for it to upset me,” Ramon continued on his rant. But when he realized that the therapist was jotting down all kinds of notes again, he completely lost it. He jumped from his seat and snatched the note pad out of her hand before she realized what was happening.

“Mr. Martinez, I’m going to need for you to calm down.” Despite her efforts to hide it, Dr. Lyncs was clearly shaken.

“Everything you’ve written is crap and I don’t have time for this bullshit. Thanks for nothing.” Ramon stormed out of the office with no intentions to ever go back.

An hour later, Ramon had called his boy, Rich, and they were bellied up to the bar throwing back shots. Ramon was still angry. Angry with the therapist and with Zoe for giving him such a ridiculous ultimatum in the first place. But most of all, he was pissed with himself for not handling Zoe in a manner that would have prevented all this in the first place. He now realized that he’d given her too much freedom, too much input, and clearly hadn’t been stern enough with her from the beginning of their relationship. Like his dad used to say, treat them like the simple minded kids they are and you won’t have to worry about reining them in later.

“So what do you plan to do about Zoe now? How will you tell her that you’re not going back to therapy?” Rich asked.

“I’m not telling her anything. As far as I’m concerned she can continue to think that I’m going.” Ramon threw back another shot.

“Dude, you better handle that. You can’t let these women rule you. Hell, I know you’re not scared of her, so put your foot down, handle your business, and tell her you’re not going back. You are the man and ruler of that house, now make her ass fall in line,” Rich offered his unsolicited advice.

“You’re right; I’m tired of bowing down and caving to her ridiculous demands. It’s time for Zoe to fall in line and I’ll do whatever I have to to make her.”

Across town, Zoe had stopped by Martha and Pam’s place to say hello and catch up. She hated she’d missed Sunday dinner, but there was no way she was going to let them see her with that bruised face.

“Hey Mama, how are you?” Zoe asked as she kissed her mother hello.

“I’m fine, sweetheart, how are you? And why haven’t I seen you in over a week?”

“I’m fine and I’m sorry I hadn’t gotten over here before now. I wasn’t feeling my best earlier this week and actually took a couple of days off just to recoup. Where is Pam?”

“That girl just got out the shower and is getting dressed. She had a late night and is moving in slow motion today. What was wrong with you? Did you go see a doctor? You should’ve called me and I would have come by after work to cook you some soup or something.” Martha was always overly concerned for her daughters and was now giving Zoe the once over to make sure that she couldn’t see anything visibly wrong with her.

“No, I didn’t need a doctor Mama, it was just a stomach bug,” she lied. “And I didn’t want to bother you. Besides, Ramon took great care of me,” she assured as the lies continued to fall from her lips.

“Hey, chicka!” Pam bounced out of her room and went straight to Zoe for a big hug. When she stepped back from her sister, she noticed a small dark mark just under Zoe’s eye. “What happened to your eye, did Ramon punch you?” Pam chuckled at her little joke, never realizing that she’d hit the nail right on the head.

“Ha-ha, very funny, Pam. I actually clocked myself with the cabinet door the other day. That thing hurt like hell, but thankfully didn’t leave a real bad bruise.” Zoe hated how the lies were piling up. She, Pam, and Martha had always been one hundred percent honest with one another and now all of that was changing. But at least Ramon was getting the help she thought he needed and she’d never have to repeat these kinds of lies to her family again.