Tina sighed and rested her forehead on her hand. “I was just in time. I still can’t really believe it either. I honestly had no idea how she felt, so it naturally came as a huge shock. But how do you know?”

“The letter was lying on the floor and I was curious. I mean, how often do people actually write letters with pen and paper these days? And then I read it and I looked at the clock and I figured you’d normally be at home by now so you must have driven to her place. I’m glad you weren’t too late, babe.”

Tina flinched at the term of endearment, but knew not to say anything. She hated it, but now was not the time. “Me too.” There was a long silence. “Did you guess how she felt? I know I tend to be blind for these kinds of things.”

Eric hesitated. “I wasn’t really sure. I mean, it does make sense once you know it. She did give you strange looks sometimes and she always managed to not spend time just the three of us, but I thought that was because it’s not really that much fun hanging out with a couple all the time. I mean, she’s also practically married to that singer, you know, the one she’s been fancying for ages…”

Silence again. Tina tried not to connect this with the fact that there seemed to be more and more silences between them lately. All they’d been talking about was babies, the practicalities of it, how they wanted one. Sometimes, when they were being intimate, Tina felt like she was nothing more than a machine that would produce a baby. She tried to focus on the conversation again. These were all issues to be addressed later.

“So, uhm, what are you going to do now? Is she okay? I mean, you’re not at the hospital so I guess she must be, but you know… is she?”

Eric was a confident, strong man. He never rambled. He was definitely rambling now. His reaction was nothing like the one she had expected. She had somehow thought he would be more dismissive of it as he had always thought Bette to be a distant person and didn’t like her very much.