He tried again, more forcefully this time, but still he couldn't get her to stir. His knees went out from beneath him, and he sank to the floor. Latin... his head on her lap, he began to sob gently. The tears fell from his eyes, cleaning small patches of soot from his cheeks as they rolled down his face. Flames had begun to lick at the edges of the doorframe by now. He watched them through stinging eyes as they raced threateningly closer to where he knelt, and knew there was nothing he could do to. “You’re knickers are wet too.” She kissed him. “I know, Charles has been... very attentative, shall we say?” She thought about mentioning her earlier conversation with Charles but decided against it, besides, there were other priorities. “I’ve put some fresh towels in the bathroom for you,” she told him. “I thought we could all go out to eat, perhaps a Chinese?” Sean nodded in approval and grabbed her hand to hold it against his bulge. “I’ll tuck you into bed tonight and take care of you. I think she mostly failed.“That’s perfectly reasonable,” Jess said. I took her hand and held it in mine.“So, I want you,” - Emma nodded to Jess - “to be my first maid-of-honor, if you’ll be it.”“Yes!” Jess said immediately, “Absolutely! The other, I assume, is Liz?”“Oh, actually, no,” Emma said, surprising us both. “Liz and I are friends, but not really close in the way I am with you guys. We don’t really talk or anything outside of work. She’s a great person, but we don’t really have a lot in. Being deprived of sex and only spending time with Mike had probably sent me a little stir crazy. I woke the next morning really late, around 10:00 a.m.. Mike shouted up the stairs for breakfast. I quickly got dressed and went downstairs, I had to face him at some point. Mike looked different today, very relaxed and casual somehow. He even had trendier clothes on, I was slightly jealous. I apologised for my comment yesterday and hoped that I had not offended him. I offered to leave if I had made.