“No?” I ask with a pained voice and a bit of
hope brushing up against my heart.
“No I don’t. But I’ll need your help,” he says,
taking another step closer to me. “I need you to
help me to be a better person.”
“M-me? Why me?”
Another step closer and his forehead is touching
mine. It caresses my face and I close my eyes to let
his touch imprint itself in my mind.
“Because with you, Erin, I feel I can be …
different. I can be myself. I feel that I can finally
be a man.”
Patrick
We go back into the pub as I support her with an
arm. She’s shivering and pale and seems just about
ready to faint. She’s freezing, having been standing
in the freezing rain and is completely distraught
because of me. She’s barely able to put one foot in
front of the other. So I pick her up and carry her to
the door of her apartment. She doesn’t protest, she
doesn’t say anything, she simply rests her head on
my chest and by doing so she stops me feeling
cold and shaky, because this contact warms my
body and heats up my cold heart.
I climb the stairs slowly, afraid I might drop her;
I open the door and go straight to the bathroom.
She needs a hot bath, right away, so she can relax.
I make her sit on the edge of the tub as I turn the
water on.
“What are you doing?” she asks me in
