Tina: “That’s so tragic, yet so romantic. Why did you two break up?”

Helena: “Well, we dated for two years. Our plans were to graduate and get a house together, but she was a semester a head of me. When she graduated she was offered an internship at a small art museum here in LA. So we made a promise that after I graduated I would come here and we could start our lives together. I was willing to give up everything my family offered me just to be with her. It was about a month before graduation, I flew here to surprise her. She was supposed to be attending an exhibition at a small gallery she’d found. So I thought I would show up there. However, when I got there she was wrapped in the arm’s of an older woman and when I saw them my whole world came crashing down so I left.”

Tina: “I’m so sorry. Did you ever talk to her again? Did you ever find out who the older woman was?

Helena: “Yes, to both questions. She called me a few months later. Wanting us to work things out, of course. She told me who the woman was and how they had met. She said they broke up about a month after I saw them together, but it had taken her several months to gather the courage to call me. I loved her intensely but by that time my guard was up. I told her I had nothing to say to her and asked her to not cantact me again.”

Tina: “Do you have any regrets?”

Helena: “Only one. I wish I had confronted them at the gallery so I could have gotten alot of those emotions off my chest. I’ve never forgiven myself for being such a coward. I feel like I just let that other woman win and I didn’t even put up a fight.”

Tina: “That’s not true….look what you’ve done for yourself. You weren’t a coward, you were young and thrown into a situation most people would’ve walked away from.”

Helena’s connection to Tina is getting stronger. After only knowing her for a little more than an hour she’s feeling things she knows she shouldn’t.

Helena: “Tina, this may sound strange, but I like you…alot.”