She didn't know he was there, had no clue that she was not alone in the room, as she sobbed brokenly into the understuffed pillow. Alone was all she felt at the moment. Utterly bereft and cold, with no one to turn to when she felt so wretched. Which wasn't at all true, but Philotes couldn't remember that she had friends and family that cared about her when everything inside her felt like it was freezing hard
So when the arms went around her, Lottie's first thought was that Nicolas had changed his mind. He'd realized he'd made a mistake, that he was giving up something amazing, that he really did love her and it wasn't all some game to him. She thought he'd come back. But the voice was all wrong, the voice didn't belong to Nicolas, it belonged to...
Anteros.
She'd known him almost as long as she'd know Harmonia. He was her best friend's brother, and he'd become her friend too. But she hadn't seen him for some time, and she hadn't really expected to. Not when she'd been – but she wasn't in love anymore, was she? She had been rejected. So where else would Anteros be? Of course he belonged here. Because of her, because she hadn't been enough to hold onto the heart of someone she cared for. She was such an abject failure at love, the erote in charge of unrequited love had come for her himself. What a joke she was, Affection dumped by a mere mortal.
Turning in Ter's arms, she wrapped her own around him. Her face pressed against his chest, she muttered bitterly, “You can't. Because it was me. I hurt me. I'm so stupid. So, so stupid.”