She was the one who brought me a box full of dinner plates to throw at the walls and floor to try to release the anger and hatred I felt for my dad for what he had done. But most importantly, she was the one who held my hand and pulled me through it all and out the other side of my grief and accepted when my mind stopped me from letting anyone touch me going forward. Who doesn’t even let their best friend hug them? I know I’m just weird, but I can’t help it.

“I’ll be okay, I’m sure it was just the shock of yesterday. I won’t feel as helpless this time. I have an army of men and women around me who are ready to go to battle for me. Last time I was so young, with the weight of the world on my shoulders, looking after my family, and I only really had you. We had no idea how to handle it, and we just muddled through, and looking back, I’m super proud of how we did that. But this time, we are both older and have a lot more knowledge, life experience, and money behind us. No stalker is going to keep me from living my best life.” And when I get to the end of my speech, I’m not sure if I’m saying it to convince her or myself.

But whatever I said makes her understand that I don’t want to sit around and dwell on the fact that my life is volatile again.

“Of course, you’ll be fine. We are going to deal with this guy one way or another and then continue living our fabulous lives.” She pauses and then gets a stupid grin on her face. “So, tell me what happened with Forrest last night instead. I’m sure that’s more fascinating than this.”

“Oh my God, you could have warned me about the playroom!” I yell at her, and we both start laughing as I give her the story of last night and this morning’s craziness.

“Did you explain why you were standing in his kitchen with a chopping board above your head?” She is still laughing at me.

“Nope. And I hope it is confusing the hell out of him today, because that would give me great pleasure.” Looking at my computer screen, I see that Felisha has an online meeting in five minutes.

“Anyway, enough about my stupid life, you have Mr. Tan calling in five minutes, so you need to go do some work.” I shoo her away with my hands.

“Ugh, work is overrated some days,” she says, standing to leave.

“Who the hell are you and what have you done with my best friend Felisha, the workaholic?” I hold my hand on my heart in mock shock.