When the call came, Philotes literally jumped, fumbling the amphora she was holding in her hands at the time. It bounced from palm to palm, banging against her wrist and inner arm a few times before finally slipping from her grasp to slam into the hard marble of the floor. She sighed as she watched the clay shatter and the rich olive oil inside slowly spread out in a puddle. Well. So much for that. The green-tinged amber liquid was a loss at this point.
But as bad as she felt about losing the gift she was taking to a rather talented young cook in a fine house, a reward for her loyalty to a dear friend in a time of trouble, Lottie felt a thousand times worse about who was making the call. Because she hadn't been loyal to her own dear friend. Well, she had. Just not as loyal as she should be. Because if she'd been as loyal as she should be, Harmonia wouldn't have had to make the effort to call her this way. Friendship should have just been there as soon as she was needed. Instead, it had been...
How long had it been? It wasn't that Lottie had forgotten about Harmonia, because she hadn't. She adored her friend, and would never have left her alone for long. But things came up, and it had been some time since she'd been there to see Harm. Who was stuck in her new life, on the mortal plane, all by herself. Philotes felt wretched. How could she not have been by to see her in... a few weeks? A month or two? Surely that's all it had been, but that was still far too long.
She wanted to immediately make her way to her friend, but she couldn't leave the mess she'd made. Somebody might be punished for it. So she took a moment to remove the signs of her clumsiness, then stepped into Concept. And right back out a second later, in Harmonia's bedchamber, an apology already on her lips. But it died before a sound was ever made, as Philotes took in her friend's silhouette.
She was... round. Really round. But not fat round. No, this was... this was pregnant round. And judging from her size, this wasn't something that had happened a month or two ago. Which meant that Philotes had abandoned her friend for far longer than she'd even realized. Oh what an awful friend she was! There was only one way to even begin making up for this: she would give Harm exactly what she asked for.
Lottie immediately crossed the room, wrapping her arms around her friend, neither caring about or noticing the lack of clothing on Harmonia's person. Her best friend wanted a hug, she was getting a hug. But it wasn't a squeezing, tight hug, because Philotes didn't want to hurt the baby or cause any distress given Harm's condition. So while her arms were firm and sure, it was a gentle, loving hug that Friendship hoped would let her friend know just how very, very, very sorry she was.
She pressed a quick kiss to Harmonia's cheek, leaning forward over her shoulder to reach, and then she whispered, “I'm here, Harm. I'm here. What's wrong?”