I slouched down and sipped my tea.“OK, Tiger. It’s time to talk.”“I’m depressed,” I sighed. “I lost my best friend because the two of us...failed each other. And now, she thinks we can’t even be friends or see each other. She promised she’d come by, but I don’t think she will, at least not anytime soon. And that sucks. I feel lost, I guess. But I have the two of you, which helps a lot.”“What can we do for you?” Jessica asked.I smiled, “Just love me. There really isn’t anything else. Nobody can. Melissa worked in copy and we'd gone to the movies and lunch a couple times. She was okay in a sort of bland, vanilla kind of way."So what's new, Trudy?" she asked, offering me some of her grilled chicken salad."Nothing," I said, taking a bite. "I'm thinking about taking some of my vacation time." Where do you want to go?" I don't know, maybe someplace warm and exotic and far away from Mr. Peterson's damn bellowing."Dirk stuck his head in the doorway. "Trudy, Peterson is yelling for you."I. Oddly enough looking healthy. Strong actually, with no visible bruising. You pull yourself up with your arms struggling into a leaned back sit. Hands planted on the ground, pushing passed all the familiar muscle pains.Eyes meeting your feet, you finds that the source of warmth was coming from another body. Lifting your head, eyes moving up to a petite a redheaded girl looking at you curiously. Her skin bare for you to see.You freeze!She moves her red hair out of her face nonchalantly with her. "Darla paused as she listened to her mom say something, "No, I have plenty of food. Just plan to stay overnight—we'll watch a movie or something fun."Another pause before she said, "Okay, love you too. Bye."As she was getting off the phone, I adjusted her state of mind back to being "normal," except for her memory of what was to come.She immediately looked at me and said, "Joe, I can't go through with this. It's my mother! I can't believe they would even ask something like this." She paused.