It was ten in the morning, I was lying in bed, I had taken the day off from work, and the thought that she hadn't called me worried me.

We're just friends, friends that have been through a bit and have always been there for each other even though we haven't always been around each other. We're surrogate boyfriend and girlfriend, we know we're not the best lovers for each other but we would tough it out if we had to because we love each other. It hasn't come to that yet.

No call – I suspected that she has a non-surrogate boyfriend and I'm okay with that because she can do better than me but I'm not done loving her yet; I worried about complications. I rolled out of bed, I had some drinking planned for this day to; I flipped open my phone. I only got the phone a day and a half ago, I still missed my old phone. The new phone told me I had two messages waiting. The first message was a hangup. The second message was her. She sang the entire birthday song, I could hear some of her friends in the background and she through in a "I love you very much."

I saved the message.