Jennifer walked into the room and put her arm around Melissa. “I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks.”

“You should have seen them, Melissa. They were over the moon. They’re going to be such good parents to David.”

Melissa looked at the window again. “David. I like that. He looked like a David to me.”

Jennifer retreated to the bed and sat. “So when are they letting you out of here?”

“The doctor said sometime tomorrow.”

“Want me to pick you up?”

She looked at the door and saw Brian.

Jennifer glanced back, saw him, and stood. “I’d better get going. Call me if you need anything.” She stopped and made sure Melissa heard her. “Anything, okay?”

Melissa nodded and Brian walked into the room. “Hey.”

“Where were you?”

“You know where I was. At work.”

She walked up to him and he backed away. He had a handful of breath mints in his mouth and she guessed why.

“How you feeling?” Brian said.

She wanted him to hug her and tell her everything was going to be all right, but he stood on the other side of the room. She sat on the bed and shrugged.

“Hey, I saw two people carrying a baby out in a yellow blanket. Do you think those were the people who adopted your baby?”

“Our baby,” Melissa said. “Did you see their car? Did it have Louisiana plates?”

“I just passed them in the parking lot. I didn’t stalk them.”

She wanted to cry. She wanted to run down the stairs and into the falling snow barefoot. She wanted to get out of the hospital and away from the empty feeling. Anything to lessen the pain inside.

“You want me to get you something to eat?” Brian said.

“Not hungry.” And she doubted she ever would be. She had watched what she ate because she knew it would affect the baby. Now nothing she ate would affect him and that thought sent her reeling. She had watched the doctor snip the umbilical cord, and even though she had held David and kissed his face and felt closer to him than anything in her life, he was gone.

“You want me to go, then?” Brian said.

“Why didn’t you come see him? You could have at least done that for me.”

Brian shifted his weight from one foot to the other, a habit when he was nervous.

“Don’t lie and say you were at work all day.”

Shoulders slumped. “I’m here now, aren’t I? Everybody handles things different, Melissa. I’m not good with stuff like this. Hospitals give me the willies.”

She stared out the window at the snow that came harder now. “It’s like it never happened.”

“What do you mean?”

“For you, it never happened. You can go on with your life. You never even looked him in the eyes.”