“And instead it made things worse?”

Tina shrugged and shook her head slightly. “Not really. Things have been pretty bad to begin with.”

“Grief takes time. But you can get through it.”

“I know,” Tina said. “It’s kind of you to care.”

There were a few beats of silence before Bette spoke again. “Well.” Bette stood up. “I guess I should be going…”

“Thank you for stopping by,” Tina said, standing herself.

“Not to be too forward, but… will you think about what I said? I really think my friend could help you.”

“I appreciate it. I’ll think about it, sure.” Tina knew that she wouldn’t take Bette up on that offer, even though she probably should.

She saw Bette to the door and said goodbye. “I’ll be seeing you.”

“’Bye, Tina.” Bette still looked solemn but she managed a little smile.

Tina shut the door behind her with a weird feeling of relief and sadness.

Eric peeped out of his office and Tina smiled at him.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yeah. She’s nice. I told her it wasn’t her fault.”

“You look troubled,” Eric said, frowning slightly.

“No…” Tina couldn’t describe it, but something had changed inside her. She needed some time alone to figure it out. “…but I am tired, though. I’m going to lie down for a little while.”

Eric nodded. “Alright.”

Tina went into the bedroom again and shut the door. She lay down carefully on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Why was it so difficult to talk about anything with Eric, and so easy to talk about those same things to Bette? She hadn’t expected to open up the way she had just now.

Bette was kind. Tina didn’t know her that well, but she could tell that Bette really seemed to care about her – Tina could see that much in her eyes. She was probably a fixer, Tina decided. She had only seen Tina a few times, yet Bette had taken it upon herself to invite Tina places and be friendlier than new neighbors usually were.

Bette’s friend Alice had mentioned hearing about Tina before they’d met, so that meant Bette had been talking to her friends about her. But why?

At any rate, Tina thought, she figured deep down that she had turned a corner. Somehow she knew that the worst was over, and that her fight to drag herself back to normalcy was going to get that much easier. She’d faced the cold reality of burying her child, the aftermath, a grief so great it threatened to swallow her alive, and had been forced to deal with all of those feelings in a public setting. She had thought nothing could be worse than those days after hearing that her and Eric’s baby had died. And even though she anticipated more pain, and had felt fresh hurts in the past few months, nothing had been worse than that initial blow. She was getting better. And mentally, Tina was more prepared than ever to move forward. It wouldn’t be easy at first, but it would be in time. She knew it.