"Well, JD... it just may not get any worse at home," I smiled as we sat in my office at work.

"That good, eh?" he couldn't help notice I still had a shiner from my fight with Eric.

"That bad! Actually, it's comforting to know that if this last thing doesn't work for me and Eric -- it's really gonna be over. I mean, I've done everything anyone can possibly do to save this relationship -- short of the upcoming intervention. And if that doesn't work, I'm out of it. I've had it with Eric Lewis."

I really did feel better about things -- I really did know, in my heart, that if Eric didn't go through with the intervention and the subsequent therapy, I would end my relationship, I would move out and that would be that. The thought of being single again made me sick, but it couldn't be any worse than what I'd gone through in the last several months.

JD, of course, was a dream.

"Listen, Andrew. You have friends, lots of great friends. You'll always have us and we'll be there for you no matter what happens. I mean that. If you need a shoulder to cry on, if you need to go out and get drunk, or take off to Mexico for the weekend -- whatever you need, you just say the word. And as for this thing with Eric... I should tell you something..."

That got my attention. "What?" I asked.

"When I first met Eric, back when we were freshmen in college -- well, at first he kind of gave me the creeps. I mean, he had just gone through the name change and the whole thing with denying where he came from and who he was, who his parents were -- all of it... anyway, one time... we were alone, we'd gone to the beach for dinner and afterwards, he got this weird look in his eyes -- I swear to God, Andrew -- it's as if he was possessed or something, like he became someone else. Someone I'd never met. He sure wasn't Eric anymore. He was someone strange, someone different."

God.JD was so totally convincing, it gave me chills.

"I know what you're talking about, JD. I met that person the other night, by way of this black eye. And when I think about it, there have been so many times I felt like Eric was behaving strangely. And this thing with Rebecca Granville, that was the limit."

"Let's hope this intervention works, Andrew. For all our sakes."

I knew what he meant. JD looked at me and said, "Andrew, I feel like I've known you for years. Isn't it strange how fast we've gotten to know each other? How close we've become? I think it's great."

It was nice. Scary. But nice.