Most of the bar’s patrons were regulars, just here for a normal Friday night. But there was one of them who was out of place. Not unfamiliar – actually Will knew the zebra quite well – but this wasn’t someone he’d have expected to see here. And on moving closer, there was something troubling about the way he was sitting.

It wasn’t a sort of trouble that sent off “leave me alone” vibes, though, so Will made his way over.

“Hey, Rollie,” the marten greeted. “You’re looking pretty rough. What brings you here?”

“Hmm? Oh, hi, Will,” Roland said back, glancing over for a moment and then gesturing invitingly at the empty stool beside him. He looked back down into his half-empty glass, sighing. “You’d think two years together would be time enough to get to know someone.”

And there was a valid reason for the normally-sober Rollie to turn to hard liquor. “Still torn up about Tabbie, huh?”

“’Still’ isn’t the word I’d use,” the zebra demurred. “I wasn’t happy to split up, no, but I could see it was the better course. We’d had our good times together, but we weren’t really a good fit. It was time to move on, and we parted amicably enough.” He tossed back a slug of whiskey like it was water. “Or so I thought.”

Will kept his opinion of the hare to himself. “What happened?”

“I found some of her CDs that she’d left at my place,” Rollie explained. “I tried calling her to let her know, but her number was out of service! Emailed her – nothing. My shift was done early yesterday, and I bumped into her at the terminal on my way home; but when I said I’d been trying to reach her, she accused me of harassing her. Said she’d changed her number because of me, that she was trying to move on and I wasn’t letting her!”

The zebra turned his empty glass in his fingers, shaking his head. “She said I’d always been pressuring her – for time, attention, sex… that she’d wanted out for months because I made her uncomfortable… Will, she’s the one who said we should stay friends – now it’s like she’s a different person!”

“She’s…” Will bit his lip, then tried again. “It’d be easy to say she’s crazy, she’s wrong, it’s not your fault. But you’re really worried there’s something to this, aren’t you? It’s not just that she’s gone, it’s this doubt she’s slapped on you.”

“I know I’m not good at this. But I don’t want to stay that way,” Rollie breathed.

“Okay, let me think.” Will did so quickly, choosing his words with care. “It’s true you can be intense. But I know you have trouble seeing when to back off if people don’t just tell you so. If she didn’t say to ease off in so many words, she wasn’t trying to know you. You’re not a stalker, and certainly not a rapist.

Rollie drew a deep breath. “You think so?”

Will clapped him on the shoulder. “If I had a sister, I’d trust you with her,” he promised.