So one day she said...
	"It's just that I've noticed, Tarik, that you're not the same with me as you were with her. I used to watch the way you two interacted, and you obviously adored her, and I so wanted that adoration for myself. You don't treat me that way; you don't even look at me that way, and I just want to understand why."
	And of course it made me think. It made me think hard about things I'd already been considering for quite some time; things I'd been discussing with another for weeks at that point. Sadly, but not surprisingly, the only thing that I could come up with was that she was right. She was absolutely right. As much as I wanted her to be, she simply wasn't really all that special to me. When it was really supposed to matter, I couldn't give her any of the answers she wanted, so I chose not to tell her anything. I couldn't think of a single good reason to try to stop her from leaving. (Because pride alone doesn't even resemble a good reason.) So I didn't.