“Don’t do it, don’t fool yourself, no matter what you tell yourself, you know what you are, says one voice.

Take a chance, says the other voice. You’re lonely. You have to try. This is the voice he always ignores.

This may never happen again, the voice adds, and this stops him.

It will end badly, says the first voice, and then both voices fall silent, waiting to see what he will do. He doesn’t know what to do; he doesn’t know what will happen. He has to find out. Everything he has learned tells him to leave; everything he has wished for tells him to stay. Be brave, he tells himself. Be brave for once.”