Bette put down her purse and removed her jacket then went into Emma’s private bathroom to wash her hands. When she came out Emma was setting the food out on the coffee table in the sitting area and had their drinks. She closed her office door and they sat down on the comfortable sofa to eat and have their talk.

“This is great doc. Thanks for lunch and thanks for seeing me on such short notice. I’m not sure what came over me this morning but all of a sudden I felt panicky about everything.”

“Did something happen this past weekend while you were in Carmel? Did you and Tina have a fight or something?”

“No, not at all. As a matter of fact we had a great weekend. Leigh’s opening was a huge success. We had a chance to hang out with our friends and family. We had a really great time.”

“Is Tina expressing anymore jealousy about the time you’ve spend with Leigh?”

“Not that I’ve noticed, and she hasn’t said anything. They seem to be getting along fine. As a matter of fact Leigh is interested in buying Tina’s condo.”

“Well that’s good to hear. So what is the ‘everything’ that you are panicked about?”

“It’s just that everything is happening so fast. I guess I’m scared. Tina and I have been back together just over three months and we are facing all these major life-changing decisions. I’m not sure we’re strong enough.”

“What do you mean by strong enough?”

“We are still in the honeymoon stage of our relationship and so far everything’s been great but the fact is because of our shared history I can’t help but feel like maybe those bad behaviors that broke us up will resurface once we get challenged by some of the changes we are embarking on.”

“What bad behaviors are you referring to?”

“When we decided to start a family which was life changing for us we both made all these sacrifices. We were miserable with our decisions but neither one of us was brave enough to voice our concerns so instead we let our marriage deteriorate to the point of no return. If Tina hadn’t gotten pregnant when she did we might not have even found our way back to each other to become friends much less partners.”