HER life. You've got to break up with him."

“I'm not strong enough. I can't.”

I stepped into the room and said, "You don't have to."

“David!" both girls shrieked.

“How much did you hear?" E-Beth immediately asked, blubbering through her tears.

"Enough."

E-Beth ran straight to me, throwing her arms around me in a big hug.

“David! I'm so sorry!" She started into full-blown bawling once again.

I just held her and waited it out. Amber looked over with a pained expression.

Eventually, E-Beth managed to find her voice.

“Please believe that I care about you, I really do."

I looked down into her eyes.

“But you're not really in love with me.

You're not ready to settle down.”

Still sniffling, she shook her head ‘no', looking ashamed for not feeling what she believed she ought to be feeling.

"Isn't this supposed to be the other way around? Y'know, the girl wants a commitment and the guy can't handle it?" I tried to inject a little humor into the situation.

The joke didn't go very well. The tears coming down my face probably ruined the effect and E-Beth just looked even worse.

I didn't want to lose E-Beth. She brought me so much happiness and a boundless joy to our relationship. True, we were in something of a rut and true, we were starting to become an ‘old couple’. But she had let me lead her on an adventure of discovering new love and I'd had the pleasure of opening her up to a world of sexuality.

But that was it. I was her beginning, her introduction. But unless I stepped aside, she would never learn what else the world had to offer her. I couldn't be her ending as well without denying her that chance.

And it wouldn't be fair to her. Because Cherys knew it, E-Beth knew it; even I knew it deep down. I was still haunted by Ellie. Who knows? If

Ellie had lived, we might have even broken up by now. But because she had been taken from me in such a tragic and traumatic manner, her memory was still lodged inside of me. And in a way, my relationship with E-Beth had been founded as a rebound. That foundation couldn't be stable long-term and the cracks had recently begun to show.

I breathed out a long, long sigh as I tried to gather my bearings. Then

I held my girlfriend in my arms and kissed her forehead before holding myself two feet away from her.

“I'm sorry.”

She looked at me strangely, not understanding.