A Presence Felt - Part 1 - Sex Stories

A Presence Felt - Part 1

... his help. Many were content to come to his office each week and simply talk about their problems. He could discuss various ways for them to work on resolving their issues, but behavior patterns ran stubbornly deep, and clients often resisted implementing necessary changes.

In the worst cases, they showed up wanting to try some spiritual quick fix, which they'd most often heard about on a daytime talk show. Maybe their problems were rooted in past-life trauma, they said. Or maybe they had repressed memories. They would push for him to incorporate hypnosis into their sessions, and when he refused, they'd go elsewhere.

But Stella had been doing so well, eager to make positive changes. He'd had such hope that she would heal from her past and go on to form healthy relationships. This talk of ghosts felt like a setback. Adrian struggled to hide his disappointment as he said, "I don't believe in ghosts, no."

"So you don't believe there's anything after this?" She gestured widely with her arms, as if to encompass the entire earthly realm in them.

"No one can say for sure," he replied. Better to hedge on this question. If Stella believed her grandmother lived on in some spiritual plane, Adrian didn't want to take that comfort from her.

"But what doyouthink?" she demanded. "You have no opinion on the matter? Do you believe in the soul and all that stuff?"

Adrian managed to suppress an exasperated sigh. "My personal belief is that we don't have souls. Doesn't mean my ...

... belief is right," he quickly added. "But I think that everything we are—our personalities, our hopes and fears—all of it resides in the brain. And when the brain ceases to function, well, so do we."

She considered his words for a long moment. "Then you're the perfect person to decide if I'm going crazy or not." Her eyes brightened with something like hope. "Adrian, you could come to my house and walk into that room. If you didn't feel any kind of presence there, I'd trust you over my own experiences."

Going to a client's house was out of the question. "Stella," he said, his voice gentle, "have you considered that you're feeling this presence because you still deeply miss your grandmother and you don't want to be alone?" She appeared crestfallen at what he suggested, all that hope vanishing from her face. "My beliefs have nothing to do with what you're going through right now, and they might be completely wrong. Maybe the presence you're sensing is, in fact, your grandmother."

Stella scoffed. "Don't patronize me!"

"I'm not," he insisted.

When she spoke again, her voice rose with each word; he'd never seen her so agitated. "It's not my grandmother in that room, okay? It's definitely male!"

Adrian furrowed his brow. "How can you know that?"

Stella's lips trembled then. Not once had she ever broken down crying in his office, not even when telling him how much she wished she could see her grandmother one last time. "Because he..." She sucked in a deep breath, ...