,

Heart. Ache.

Your heart was already aching the day that we met.

Yes. Why are you bringing this up now?

It was a friend. A genuine friend. He died… earlier… that year?

Yes.

Nobody talks about him. Rarely.

It’s rarely brought up these days, yes.

I saw him that day. His Ghost followed you around the bookstore.

No fucking way. This is an embellishment.

(Grinning)

Yeah, nah, I didn’t.

But in some moments… over the years… I’ve tried to reach out to him

And?

I’m not… “that psychic” either… I couldn’t reach him.

I can’t just reach out to ghosts of people I don’t know.

He’s probably not a ghost, or if he is, he’s not around me, he’d be around his own family… we were childhood friends, but I am not that important. His own mother, his own father — his own nieces now, he has his own family to hover around.

Oh, I see