"Hello, my name is Lillian and... I'm in love."

"Hello, Lillian," the group of twelve said unanimously.

The group leader, a small woman in every way with black framed glasses, smiled brightly. "Tell us your story, Lillian. We've all been through it. We can help you."

Lillian looked down at her hands, folded on the podium in front of her. Swing dancers were shimmying around in her stomach and her whole body was starting to perspire. She felt like a can of 7-Up just brought from the fridge to the outdoors.

"His name is Austin and he's nineteen, my age." She twisted the ring on her left hand to try to calm her nerves, to try to feel him with her. "We started dating two years ago when we were both juniors in high school. He was the sweetest boyfriend any girl could ever ask for. He was always holding my hand, wrapping his arms around my waist, defending me, protecting me, picking me up when I stumbled, and he always remembered birthdays and anniversaries and special dates with no meaning to anyone but me. He always made me laugh when I was crying and he had a way with words that was just inspiring. He's a really amazing person, but not once in our relationship did he tell me he loved me."

A man at the far edge of the circle raised his hand. "Did you tell him you loved him?"

Lillian nodded. "All the time. I figured if I said it then he would feel that it was all right to express himself, but he never did."

The man nodded and closed his eyes. His bottom lip trembled and he folded his arms.

"That's Tim," the group leader said softly. "He just got out of a fourteen year marriage. He really needs support getting over his love."

"She just up and left," Tim said, tears begin to course down his face. "Just took the kids and the dog and went to her sister's. Her sister hates me, too. Can't even... can't even... see my kids."

"It's ok, Tim, it's all right." The leader patted his arm and looked to the woman on Tim's other side to console him. "Ok, Lillian, you can continue."

"Umm where was I?" Lillian whispered to her hands. "Right, he never told me he loved me so we fought sometimes about that and then two weeks ago he told me the reason he never said it is because he never felt it. I dated him for two years and was never into any sort of infidelity. I was always true to him and I loved him and he just..." She shrugged. "I don't know what I did wrong."

"Nothing!" Tim shouted. "You didn't do anything!" He pounded his fist on the little table beside him, making his styrofoam coffee cup wobble dangerously. "He just can't appreciate you, just like my wife didn't appreciate me. I worked over eighty hours a week to put food on that table for her. I broke my fucking back for that woman and she just left me." Tim shook his head as tears spilled over his eyelids. "People just think they can take and take and never give back and things will be fine and it's just not. They don't realize how much they're hurting us."

"Tim's right," the leader said, smiling up at Lillian, "you didn't do anything. It's not your fault that Austin left you. Tell us what happened when he walked out. What was the argument and what were his exact actions?"

Lillian leaned against the podium, trying to remember the night two weeks ago when everything went catastrophically wrong. She had once again told him how she felt and he had turned a deaf ear to her. God, why didn't he love her back?

"We were watching TV and I looked over at him and he looked perfect. He'd just gotten his hair cut so it was shorter than usual and it really framed his face nicely. I told him, 'Hon, your hair looks fantastic. The barber did a good job. I love you, Hon.' He just sat there. Just flipped the channels."

"Bastard," Tim muttered.

"I grabbed his hand and asked what was wrong, because he'd been a little more silent than usual. Austin isn't known for being quiet--he's very vocal about what's on his mind." She shrugged. "That's another thing I love about him. Anyway, he said it wasn't my business and I said that because we lived in the same house and I loved him it was my business. That's when he got off the couch and told me it was stupid that I loved him since he had never loved me back and he couldn't believe that he'd stayed in the one-sided relationship for so long. He just walked out after that. The next morning he came back to get his stuff and then he was gone. I haven't seen him since."

"Talked to him? Texted him? E-mailed?" the leader asked, adjusting her glasses on her tiny nose.

Lillian shook her head. There would have been no point in trying to make some sort of contact with him. Any phone call would have went to voice mail and any text or email would have been trashed without being read. She knew how Austin got when he was angry with someone. If only he had told her the reason behind his sudden change of heart before storming off. The last two weeks had been hell and she had stared at her phone for hours contemplating whether or not to call, but she'd just roll over and go to sleep without touching it. Maybe he didn't even deserve a phone call. Why should she have to be the needy one?

"I think you need closure and that's your problem, as well as Tim's. You need a final goodbye and a reason. Austin and Scarlette both left without saying anything to either of you two. But sometimes we don't get that closure and we have to move on anyway. We just have to forget."

"But how?" the woman on Tim's other side asked. She had thick make up on to obscure the black and purple mark around her eye. She moved her hair in front of her face when she noticed Lillian's gaze on her face. "How do we just forget when we love so strongly?"

"You remember that you're a good person, a better person that your previous other half, and you build a life without them. You start going to parks and you get a dog, or a goldfish," she squeezed Tim's hand, "and then you start hiking and you paint and play guitar and you feel good by yourself. You have to love you in order for someone else to love you. And who else loves you when you love you?"

Lillian stepped down from the podium and took her place in the circle as everyone stood up and joined hands.

"God loves us," they all said. "God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference."

"Perfect, you guys. We'll meet again next week on the same day at the same time. Oh, Lillian and Tim, please stay back."

Lillian stood to the side as everyone gathered coats, coffee cups, and picked up one last cookie before heading out the door. It took a few minutes, because someone had some last minute thing to say to another member of the group or a raunchy joke that just had to be told, but the three of them were finally alone.

"All right, Lillian you walked in late. My name is Pat Rangold and I'm a certified psychologist and am trained to help with love problems," the leader said, leaning against a table set up against the far east wall. "I know one of the hardest things when someone doesn't love you back is that you don't get to say goodbye. Things get awkward and you just drift and that's that. Austin and you will probably never talk again and you won't get that final goodbye, but you need to make it happen. Tim, the same goes for you. Scarlette is not coming back to you. She is gone forever. You need to make your own goodbye."

Tim and Lillian looked at eachother, searching for an answer in the other's eyes. How did they make their own goodbyes with people that didn't ever want to see them again?

"Ok, Pat, I don't understand. If Austin won't talk to me, how do I tell him goodbye?"

Pat smiled and turned around. She pulled a drawer open and took out two notebooks. She handed one to each of the love sick pupils in front of her and shrugged.

"Write a letter to Austin and to Scarlette saying everything you need to say. This letter won't be mailed and you can add onto it at any point in time when you need to say something to them. Just write and don't think about it. Form your own answers to the questions you have and I guarantee that Austin and Scarlette will fade. It'll take time, because all things that hurt form a scab. This scab needs to heal and it's your job to quit picking at it and just let it go. The point of the journal is to let it go." Pat smiled at them and then hugged each of them. "I expect you to have a little bit written by next week. You will share this with the group. I believe it'll help you."

"Thank you, Pat," they said in unison.

"So," Tim said as they grabbed their jackets, "what're you doing now?"

Lillian shrugged and held the door open for him. "I don't really have plans anymore. Just home and then Lover's Anonymous. It's the same every week."

Tim nodded. "I'm only thirty years old. I know that's still kind of old to you, but, um... nevermind. Nevermind." He shook his head and turned to walk to his car.

"Tim!" Lillian shouted after him. "Would you like to go for coffee?"

He smiled, his green eyes lighting up like Christmas bulbs. "I'd like that."