“Oh. Come. On! Rian! Why didn’t you call me …” Bette caught herself. Bette! A little sensitivity, please? This girl’s a bonafide heroine, you know! “I’m so sorry, Rian. I didn’t mean to interrupt you, just then.”

“That’s alright, Bette. I know what you were about to say … and I hope you understand that, although I know I can depend on you and the others who care about me, about us … there are some things I have to take care of on my own,” Rian answered quickly.

“I do, Rian. I do understand, not everything, but -”

“I know I hadn’t shared much with you, Bette.”

“That’s ok. Really.”

“Anyway … let’s just say that there’s a lot I had to go through to get stronger mentally, psychologically … almost rebuilt myself brick-by-brick. To regain discipline and control and get to what I have going on right now. I’ve sworn to myself a million times along the way that there was no way I was going back to feeling helpless, the way I’d felt when I first came out of the coma. It was a really long climb to get to the top of the mountain… ” Rian fell quiet.

Bette jumped in. “Again, I’m really sorry that I even started to mention something, Rian. That was thoughtless of me. You know that I respect you a whole, whole lot, and …”

Rian smiled into the phone. “Reserve some of that respect for Jade, Bette. Jade was a really big part of the reason why I kept going at it; and, she did so much to help me. Pushed me when I didn’t feel like it. Sometimes hollered at me when I was dragging or just couldn’t find the wherewithal to get on the treadmill or keep my appointments with the psychiatrist. It hurt her to do that but she kept at it. For me.”

“Then you’ve got to do something about what you were sharing with me, Rian. Ok … you don’t have to take her to an island in the middle of the sea. But there are some things you can do, sweetie, to create that “perfect moment” that you were talking about earlier.”

“Well … I’m open to suggestions, Bette.”

“Lemme think about this for a second.”

They both fell quiet.

Bette heard splashing and squeals from the master bath. Tina was pretending to be a pirate, and the kids were pretending to be shipmates. They were all shouting “Aaarrggh!” or “Matey!” with every sentence. It sounded like they were having a blast!

“I have a crazy suggestion, Rian.”

Rian chuckled. “As long as it doesn’t involve anything illegal, please.”

“Have you and Jade every role-played? Had some fun with playing other people while …”

A sound of surprise and then silence.

“Hello? Rian? You still there?”

A voice, cool as ice, answered. “I’m not talking to you about our sex life, Bette. Even if you are one of the few people I can talk to about anything, I won’t go there in this conversation …”

“No..no, that’s not what I was thinking of, Rian. I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression with what I was saying … ” Bette interjected hastily.

“Here’s what I have in mind…”

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