"Yeah, me too," she agreed as she sank lower to the ground. She reclined onto the grass on her side with a hand on her head and the elbow on the grass. "What a depressing pair we make," she said with a laugh.

 

He reached a hand toward her and placed it in the grass, "do you think I should be doing something about it?"

 

She shook her head, "I've already told you before I do not want to tell you what to do. You have to make that decision for yourself."

 

"Well, what if you were in my position?" he asked her. He shook his head, "nevermind," he said to her before she could answer. "He would have never done something like that to you so it'd be impossible for you to imagine it."

 

Vreni nodded once in agreement, "even if I could imagine it, your brother is nothing like..." her words trailed off momentarily. "Your brother <i>was</i> nothing like my sister," she corrected herself. She now reached for his hand, "you know her and I have never been very close but I'd like to think she would never cheat on you."

 

Olie let out a breath. He began to close his fingers around hers, "I hope you're right."

 

"You know I always am," she grinned for a moment.

 

Olie's eyes widened dramatically, "that's the most I've seen you smile in a long time," he teased.

 

Vreni rolled her eyes, "yeah, yeah." She moved the arm she had been resting her head on so that she could lay flat on her back in the grass. She looked up into the branches full of waving leaves with the sun peeking through. "I don't think I can ever love again," she confessed to her former brother-in-law.

 

Olie was silent for a few moments unsure of what to say back to her. He thought of his brother, her dead husband, and imagined him walking up to join him under the tree like he always used to. "He's irreplaceable," Olie professed, "and if the day comes that you find someone else, not saying that you should or shouldn't, you will be capable of loving them." He thought a moment, "it doesn't mean you love Emil any less."

 

Vreni fell silent as her eyes began to tear up. She squeezed his hand as she choked out a few tears, "I just miss him so much," Vreni mumbled in a crackled voice.

 

"Oh Vreni," Olie whispered to her, "I didn't mean to make you upset."

 

Vreni shook her head, "it's okay, I'm okay," she told him. "I am upset that he is gone but I am so happy to have had the time with him that I did." She wiped at her face with her free hand. "I am happy to have experienced love and felt it fill my body. Sure it feels unreal that he is gone and I never once imagined what it'd be like without him but if I had I wouldn't of lived in the moment... I wouldn't of appreciated the time when he was here." She let out a laugh as her head flooded with memories of Emil, "he's gone but he still makes me happy." Vreni turned her head so that she was looking at Olie, "and you need to make sure that she does that for you. If you don't think she appreciates you then you have to find someone that does - it isn't fair... for either of you."

 

Olie smiled at her, his eyes too filled with tears. "Okay," he whispered to her, "okay," he repeated as he nodded. He wiped at his eyes and cleared his throat. "I'm glad you two shared such love," he said speaking up, "you deserve it. Both of you," he smiled again.

 

"Thank you," she mouthed to him. She let out a breath as she pulled herself closer to him, setting the side of her head on his leg. "Where would I be without you?"

 

He let out a laugh, "in a gutter for sure," he joked.

 

She too laughed as she lifted her head to let it fall back onto his leg. "You are terrible!" she told him. "You must've gotten that lip from him," she teased.

 

"Yeah," he confessed, "but in his defense he got it from Jess," he said not laughing harder. Vreni chuckled with him as she shook her head.