“Well, I spoke to Heather this afternoon.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. She came over and I made some tea, introduced her to Nathaniel, the works.”

“She’s feeling better now, I take it?”

“That’s the thing. She seemed fine, but… I don’t think there’ll be such a thing as ‘feeling better’ for her. And that… That scares me.”

“That… That must be hard. I can’t imagine what it must be like for her, or for Martin. Wait, does… Does Martin know?”

“No, and that was what scared Heather the most. We did have a talk and she said she’d tell him what was going on, but there’s just so much more to this than telling Martin.”

“We’ll get through this together, and help Heather and Martin along the way.”

“I don’t want to lose my best friend, Sam.”

“I know, Brittany, I know…”

“Thank you so much… For everything, Brittany.”

“Don’t mention it, Heather.”

“Oh, you’re too good for me.”

“Stop saying that. You know I’m going to be here for you no matter what.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really! Now, you take care of yourself and tell me how things go with Martin, okay?”

“Okay!”

“Oh… Oh my watcher, Heather. I had no idea.”

“Martin’s such a good man, and I… and I…”

“Heather…”

“I just took him for granted!”

“Shhh… Sshhhh…”

“He never stopped me! He never stopped me, Brittany!”

“I know…”

“Wh-Why? Why did he never stop me? And now I just…”

“You just…?”

“I don’t deserve him! I don’t deserve anything!”

 “Oh, Heather. I’m sure you can fix that-”

“Don’t even try to comfort me, Brittany. Nothing will work.”

“What are you talking about? All you need is to apologize to him, and–”

“You don’t understand!”

“What don’t I understand? It’s so simple! You feel bad for hurting Martin? Just go back to just him! Back to normal!”

“I can’t do that!”

“Well, why the hell not, Heather?”

“Because it could kill him! That’s why!”

“Wait–”

“I made a big mistake, Brittany. So big, I… I can’t…”