Group Therapy- Part One

“Billy, nobody here hates you,” Tara assured him.
“Yes they do,” said the sad looking young red head.
“Not true. We’re all friends in this group here.” Tara replied in a calm voice. “Who here doesn’t like Billy?” she asked the small team.
A soft murmur was heard. “I don’t.”
“See!” Billy said, sitting up in his seat in excitement. “Someone doesn’t like me!”
“Who said they didn’t like Billy?” Tara asked searching blank, disinterested faces.
“I don’t like that we’re talking about this,” Craig, light blond haired man in his early thirties, muttered with cross arms, leaning down in his seat.
“I think Danielle said it!” Billy cried.
“Who’s Danielle?” Tara asked.
He pointed to an attractive woman in her early 30’s with a pixie cut. She stared back at him in disgust. “My name is Candace. Danielle is the other black woman from accounting, which I’ve told you several times before!” she replied, shaking her head. “Tara, she’s out today.”
“Candace did you say you didn’t like Billy,” Tara said with a smile.
She shrugged. “I don’t recall.”
“Yes you did!” Billy cried. “Just yesterday.” He shifted in his seat and turned to Tara. “See I was minding my own business…”
(Cut to scene)
Candace stands in break room next to the microwave and opens her frozen dinner.
Billy comes into the room and opens the microwave, placing last nights cold dinner into the machine.
Candace glares at him as he crosses his arms waiting for his food to heat. “You know I don’t like you,” she says, before putting her frozen meal on top of the microwave and storming out.
(Back to first scene)
“He cut in front of me!” Candace cries.
“I didn’t know you were about to use the microwave!” Billy replied.
“What in the world did you think I was going to do with a frozen meal but heat it up? Knaw threw it like a popsicle? Tara, he does this all the time! Jumps in front of me in the buffet line at lunch, getting on the elevator, going through security and I swear it was his Prius that cut me off on the way to work the other day!” She turns to him, face suspicious. “You didn’t hear a red Mazda honking at you a few days ago?”
Billy shrugs with a confused look on his face.
Tara nods slowly and then turns to Billy. “Billy, how do you feel about what Candace just said?”
He looks down at his feet. “I didn’t realize. I apologize. Sometimes I get lost in my own world and I just don’t think.” He looks up at the woman. “I had no idea, Candace. I’ll pay better attention.”
Candace relaxes a bit, her face softening. “Well, okay. That’s alright.”
Tara claps. “Yes, this is good. See we are working out some of the tension in this office already. I’m really glad your boss called me here.”
Candace looks at her with a tired face. “But I wasn’t the one who just said I didn’t like him.”