When I finally exit Scarlett’s bedroom, I find her opening and closing cabinets in the kitchen with what seems like growing panic. She’s muttering to herself, but when she hears the door open, she whips around. The cabinet door slams behind her, and she starts a bit.

“Everything okay?” I ask, stepping toward the counter and the coffee I left there.

“Well, yeah. Sort of.” She shrugs, then winces at me. “You didn’t put a little orange pill bottle somewhere when you were cleaning up, did you?”

My eyes tip upward as I search my memories. “You mean like a prescription bottle?”

“Mm-hmm.” She nods as she lifts her eyebrows.

I shake my head slowly. “No, I don’t remember anything like that. Why?”

She sighs, slumping against the counter. “I’m on some medication. Antidepressants?” Her voice tips up at the end like a question. She eyes me carefully, waiting for a reaction. I keep my expression carefully neutral, unsure of which reaction would be the appropriate one for information I technically already knew. Apparently appeased, she continues, “Anyway, I can’t find them, which makes me think I might be out.”

“How long have you been without them?” I ask carefully.

She lets out a puff of air which buzzes her lips until she closes them and blows out her cheeks. Her eyes slide to me, and she sends a cautions eyebrow skyward. “I don’t remember.”

My feet, with minds of their own, shuffle toward her. “You can’t just not take your meds, Scarlett.” I try to sound stern, but my voice is laced with an unmistakable concern.

She drags her bottom lip through her teeth. “I know. I’m usually really good about remembering, I swear. But I was working on revisions for you, and then I started this next project, and when I get to working, the days all bleed together, and I can’t remember if I took it or not and—”

“Scarlett.” I tuck a wayward hair behind her ear, which effectively stops her guilty rambling. I allow myself to run a thumb over the softness of her cheek, but I drop my hand before I can give into the urge to drag that thumb over the place where she just bit her lip. “It’s okay. We’ll refill your prescription, and then I’m going to set an alarm in your phone as a reminder for when you need to take it each day.”

Her dark eyebrows crumple together in confusion, and she blinks at me a few times. “We… You…” She shakes her head rapidly as if to clear it. “Why did I never think of that?”