She tried to tell him what the sessions were like, how cathartic it all was, how different she felt afterward. “I’ve never been loved,” she said. “I realized everything that’s wrong with me is because I’ve never been loved.”

He didn’t look up from his phone; he couldn’t be less interested. When she talked about business, he would say it turned him on. But now she saw in his eyes something like contempt. It scared her. She got up from the table and went back to the room.