Laura finished her slice of pizza, and wished there were a dog to give the crust to. “I thought being a grown-up meant not needing help with anything.”

“No,” said Nina, “being a grown-up is accepting help when you need it.” She grinned. “So get a therapist, work on your shit, and when you’re up to it, I’ll take you to my cranky tame mechanic and we’ll find you a car.” She pointed a piece of pizza at Laura. “Living here is fun, but getting out of town is even better. Joshua Tree, Palm Springs, Disneyland, Carmel . . .”

Laura nodded, and thought of a good way to change the subject.

“Hey, I’m going to sign up for the LA Marathon. I don’t suppose you want to start running with me?”

Nina froze. “You promised you weren’t going to try and make me healthy.”

“I don’t think I actually promised,” replied Laura.

Nina shook her head. “There is no way I’m willingly going to run anywhere, unless it’s to the bookstore, because it’s on fire, and I’m carrying the last two buckets of water.”

Laura frowned at her. “In the world? You’d throw the last two buckets of water in the world on a burning bookstore?”

Nina ignored her. “It would have to be pretty serious for me to run, let’s put it that way.”

“Nina,” said Laura, “if you don’t start exercising now, you’ll regret it when you’re older.”

“Exactly,” said Nina. “If I run around and get sweaty now, I’ll regret it immediately, whereas if I wait, I’ll have decades of not-regretting ahead of me.” She changed the subject. “What’s going on with Bob? Polly says you two have crushes on each other but aren’t doing anything about it.”

Laura frowned. “Polly lives in a dreamworld.”

“You’re not answering the question, you’re telling me something I already know. Polly does live in a dreamworld, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t right. I saw the way he looked at you on trivia night. I saw how he looked at your idiot ex on Saturday night.”

Laura sighed. “We kissed, after trivia, and I thought maybe it was going to be the start of, you know . . .”

“More kissing?”

“Yes, exactly, more kissing, but then he backtracked the next day, and I don’t really know what to make of any of it.” She looked at Nina. “I’m feeling very confused about everything, and Bob’s one of the things I’m confused about.”

Nina nodded. “Sure, who doesn’t prefer a sense of cast-iron certainty and control? Trouble is it’s an illusion, things could go kablooey any minute.”

“Kablooey?”