Alice snorted. “I bet being shuttled around by you wasn’t any fun for the kids either,” she said. She glanced at Tina and subtly rolled her eyes in Gabby’s direction.

“I don’t care,” Gabby sniffed. “It’s not my job to cart his brats around. One of them touched my Birkin with it’s sticky little hands and smeared chocolate on it. There’s only so much that I can be expected to take.”

“So quit,” Alice suggested cheerfully.

Gabby ignored her and turned to Tina, perhaps hoping for a more sympathetic listener to unload on. “You don’t have kids, do you?”

“Me? Um, no. I don’t.” Tina said quietly.

“No? Well consider yourself lucky, then. The little shits are more trouble than they’re worth, I’ll tell you that.”

Tina’s blood ran cold as the words stabbed at her heart. She felt as if she’d just been slapped. She stared mutely at Gabby, who didn’t seem to notice anything was wrong. The other woman looked away and continued ranting at Alice about her job. Tina twisted away from them in her chair, ducking her head down and rubbing at her eyebrow to hide the fact that her eyes were pooling with tears.

“Excuse me,” she said abruptly, standing up and walking away.

She thought she heard Alice’s voice behind her, saying something about how nice it was to meet her, but she didn’t turn around. She strode past Kit, who also said something that didn’t register. Tina hurried around the corner of the house, half-running, and suddenly Bette was behind her, following, catching up, standing in front of Tina, and her mouth was moving but Tina didn’t understand. She was crying now, Gabby’s words ricocheting in her head. Consider yourself lucky, then.

A horrible thing to say, horrible, twisted and wrong… but how could that awful woman have known? It was a sick trick of fate that she would say those words to Tina, that’s what it was. Proof enough that she never should have come here.

The present materialized before her, and Tina could suddenly understand Bette over the roaring in her ears. “What’s wrong?” She was asking. “Please tell me why you’re upset?” Bette had a hand on Tina’s arm and Tina looked down at it, shaking it off rudely. She couldn’t bear it. She couldn’t be here or be touched by this woman. Oh, Eric had been right. She shouldn’t have come here. These people weren’t her friends. People that knew her wouldn’t have casually said such a cruel thing, breaking her heart all over again.

“I can’t be here,” Tina said, her voice straining out barely above a whisper. “Sorry. Not your fault. I just can’t.”

Tina turned and stumbled blindly back to her home. Bette hadn’t said anything more or followed. Tina locked the door behind her and ran into her bedroom, shutting that door and collapsing on the bed, sobbing. Oh, Sarah. I’m sorry. I’m not lucky to be without you. Nothing is right without you. I don’t know if anything can ever be right again.

Eric found her hours later, curled up on the bed, still dressed, eyes open and staring into the semi-darkness. He didn’t say anything, but instead climbed onto the bed with her, placing a careful arm around her waist. Tina let the touch remain and cried fresh tears silently, until sleep finally overcame her.