She lifted my back off the bed, holding me against her again, her arms circled around me. “Oh, my Whitney.” She rocked me back and forth, a rhythm that reminded me of the ocean and the waves.

And Tampa.

“Fuck,” I wept. “I-I can’t, Emily. I can’t handle th-this. I ne-need him. I-I need him now.”

“Baby …”

I found her shoulders and dug my nails into them, needing someone to bear some of this agony, gripping like I was about to fall off a cliff. “We were o-only at th-the beginning of our story.” I buried my face into her sweater. “We had-hadn’t even gotten st-started.” Ice was moving through my veins as the shaking took hold of me. “And n-now, it’s over.” I tried to find air, my lungs empty, my chest too caved to fill it. “The d-day after I-I finished moving my things into his co-condo.”

Fiona was rubbing my arms, trying to put warmth back into me. “I’m so broken for you right now and so, so sorry this happened.” Tears spilled from her eyes as fast as they flowed from mine.

The ache was moving into my head, surrounding my throat, dipping as low as my fucking toes.

“He’s not coming back,” I whispered, having to remind myself that this wasn’t just a horribly tragic dream. That the body I had lain next to on that table was Caleb’s. That the phone call Fiona had made to his parents at Hunt Financial actually happened. That I’d really watched his family rush into the emergency room and crumble at the sight of him.

Emily pushed my face further into her neck, still swaying us. “We’ll get through this. We’ll fight our way out of this sadness, and we’ll survive it.”

“How?” I pulled back to see the truth in her eyes. “How can I-I possibly move on, Emily? I l-love him, and he’s not coming ba-back.”

“I don’t know, but we’ll find a way.”

“I never thought anything could hurt as b-bad as losing David, but my God, I was s-so wrong.”

I pushed my hand against my chest. The torture in my heart was too much. I didn’t know how to make it go away. How I could ever take a breath again without thinking of Caleb.

“It’s going to take a long time, Whitney. But I promise, somehow, this will get easier,” Fiona said.

I shook my head. “No, I don’t believe that.”

Emily put her hand on my cheek. “Let’s get you home, okay? I think you’ve had enough hospital for a while.”

I grabbed her arm. “None of my th-things are there. They’re at Ca-Caleb’s.”

I saw the realization pass over her face, the emotion she was now trying to hide so she could be strong for me.