Gus' tenderness and assurances took the last of the fight out of Winnie. Maybe it was a good thing he'd stuck around for a little while so she was forced to cool down. She'd needed him more than she realized lately.

Once he was gone, she pinched the bridge of her nose one more time and took a deep breath before turning your blue eyes on Dory's handsome face. "He's my best friend and he's not going anywhere, so either get used to it or don't, but I can't keep doing this anymore." They were up, then down and the highs were really high and the lows were really low. Their once very casual sex had turned into something else entirely and she wouldn't mind if it didn't change with the frequency of the tides.

"This is a mess, we're a mess and something has to give." Winnie would never forget what he did for her in the wake of the attack, but it seemed like the moment she had started to get on her feet again, back to her independence, they had drifted far apart once more. She had eased up on her visits, he was right about that, but she felt like she was overstaying her welcome and suffocating him. Then the stretches went longer and longer and the floo worked both ways. And then, just like last time with the potion, he shows up out of the blue, months later and they were fighting yet again. It was exhausting.