Lottie held Harmonia as she cried, knowing that her friend needed the release of the tears. When things built up to this point, if the pressure had nowhere to go, it would make things crack and break. Tears would ease that some, at least make things feel a bit more manageable after the fact. And that would be when Philotes could talk to her friend and find out exactly what was happening. And help her friend come up with a plan to fix things.
Before the tears had ended though, the words started pouring out of Harmonia. Words that were desperate and a little panicked, which told Lottie that she hadn't relieved quite enough pressure to really talk rationally yet. This is not the moment Friendship would have picked to start the discussion. She would have preferred to wait a bit longer, but that wasn't to be. This was Harm's choice, and she was choosing now.
“Alright, let's sit down,” Lottie started, in soothing tones. “Let's sit down, and we'll talk about this.”
She guided her friend to a low chaise that was near the bed, helping her to lower herself onto it. It had to be hard when your center of balance was thrown off by a whole other person being attached to your tummy that way. As much as she wanted to help Harmonia, Lottie was still sort of struggling with the fact that she'd been gone so long, her best friend was going to become a mom and she'd had no idea. Not only had she been gone that long, Harm hadn't called her to tell her or anything. And it was a huge thing to have a baby. Why wouldn't she call? Did she really think Lottie wouldn't care? Oh, Friendship had a lot to make up for here if that was the case, if she'd given that impression.
“We have a lot to cover, and we'll get to all of it. I'm not going anywhere until we've discussed every bit of it,” she promised. “I'm going to stay right here, and we'll talk. But I think we should start with what has you so scared. What has you terrified, Harm?”