Free Bad Behavior by Jennifer Lane Page B

like a baby.
    The words sounded far off, like someone was calling for him. He felt like he was underwater as he heard his name repeated in slow motion. Like one of the fish in the nearby tank, he felt himself swimming to the surface agonizingly slowly. Blinking a few times, Grant found himself staring into Hunter’s concerned face.
    “Grant? I want to you focus on your breathing. Look around the room and tell me what you see.”
    Frantically, Grant felt beneath him and breathed out with relief when he touched the dry sofa cushion. He followed Hunter’s order and began haltingly scanning the room around him. When his gaze landed on his girlfriend’s gorgeous face, he took in her splotchy cheeks, stained with tears. But when he saw her eyes, his heart stopped. She looked at him with an expression of such raw pity—he knew he’d explode if he stayed one second longer.
    With wild eyes, Grant leaped off the sofa and flew to the door, exiting the office with lightning speed. He couldn’t care less if he’d be in trouble with Officer Stone for leaving the session early. He had to get out of there. Now.
    The door slammed behind him with a bang, and Sophie sat stunned. “What just happened?” she asked.
    Hunter sat back in his chair. He was wondering the same thing himself. Grant had obviously experienced some sort of trauma reaction, but there was something else— something he couldn’t put his finger on. Hunter had the distinct impression Grant was hiding something. He glanced at Sophie worriedly, praying another Mafia man wouldn’t destroy her once again.

6. Conflict
    A rash of goose bumps prickled her alabaster skin, and Sophie set aside her textbook and climbed out of bed, padding over to the thermostat on the apartment wall. Now that it was late August, the daytime humidity gave way to increasingly cool nights, and it was hard to keep the temperature just right.
    After setting the thermostat two degrees higher, she turned back toward the bed, rubbing her palms over her arms. Wincing, she glanced down at her left arm and extended it straight out, taking stock of the ugly scar above the elbow. Despite the summer heat, she’d been wearing long sleeves to hide the circular wound, but she only owned a couple of nightgowns, and they were sleeveless.
    She sniffed as she crawled back into bed, realizing her sudden chill had nothing to do with room temperature and everything to do with dread about seeing Grant for the first time since he’d fled Hunter’s office that morning. She had no idea what she’d say to him. After leaving him desperate voice messages all morning long, she’d finally received a text from him this afternoon:
    At work. C u tonight.
    Though curt, the message had relieved her immensely. She’d been worried his intense distress would cause him to do something stupid, but at least he’d made it to the architectural cruise; at least he wouldn’t return to prison for failing to show up at work. But her trepidation remained over what would happen when they did “c” each other tonight.
    Sighing, she returned to her Theories of Personality textbook, trying to stay one step ahead of the students she’d begin teaching next week. This chapter covered one of her favorite theorists, Alfred Adler, a contemporary of Freud. Born in 1870 in Vienna, Adler was the second of six children and often had to compete for his parents’ affection, leading him to focus his own work on key concepts like sibling rivalry, birth order, and the inferiority complex.
    As an only child, Sophie was intrigued by the role of siblings in personality development. She’d never been forced to fight over toys or felt jealous of siblings receiving more attention than her. On the contrary, she’d often craved siblings for the very reason of deflecting her parents’ attention.
    Adler’s theory was that people who felt inferior typically behaved in a superior manner to hide their inadequacies. Reading this material with a fresh eye,