The light had always been dim in her room, the lamps on throughout the day. Here the sun poured through the windows with almost indecent enthusiasm, pushing the curtains open. The birds were beside themselves with excitement about something, and she felt herself wanting to leap up to go see what it was. She could hear someone whistling in the garden, and wondered if it was Bob. She stretched luxuriously all the way down to her toes and debated whether to get up and go to the pool or turn over and go back to sleep. Then her phone rang. Laura looked at it. Huh, nearly ten. She didn’t recognize the number, but it was an LA area code, so she answered.

“Good morning!” The voice sounded much more awake than she did, and it clearly had goals. “It’s Nina, did you have breakfast yet?”

Laura propped herself up on her pillow and warily hit the speaker button.

“No, I’m still in bed.”

She could hear Nina suck in her breath. “Alone? Or with Bob?”

“Nina, one, you’re on speaker, and two,” said Laura firmly, “Bob is not a thing. Don’t get pulled into Polly’s reality-distortion field.”

Nina rolled on. “Whatever. I woke up surprisingly early this morning and thought I could possibly tempt you to do trivia practice in return for another wrist massage. Or do you already have exciting plans for the day?”

Laura frowned. “No, I have no plans, exciting or otherwise. I was thinking maybe I would swim . . . but that was as far as I got.” She paused. “Bring a swimsuit and you can do some rehab in the pool.”

“Nope,” said Nina cheerfully. “Think of me as a cat carrying original engraved plates from Birds of America by John James Audubon. Water and I are natural enemies, sworn to keep each other at bay.”

Laura looked at the ceiling. “Do you always wake up talking like this?”

“No,” said Nina honestly. “I am not a morning person, but the possibility of winning the trivia tournament is strangely motivating.” She paused. “I’ve been up since six. I’ve had three cups of coffee. I’ll bring bagels.”

Good lord. Laura said, “I do enjoy a bagel, but I am definitely going to swim.”

Nina laughed. “Great, I will shout questions from a safe, splashless distance. I’ll see you in a little bit. Go wake up Polly, she loves an everything bagel.” She hung up, clearly on the move and getting shit done.

“Will do,” muttered Laura as she levered herself out of bed and reached for her dressing gown. She found herself smiling—she’d forgotten how much she enjoyed the friendship of other women. Nick had taken up most of her time, and she was saddened to think how few girlfriends she actually had back in the city. Her mother had been right when she’d said no one else would want her contact info.