When Steven turned seventeen and got his license, their dad bought him a Porsche 911S with a glass top. Steven drove it for a month, received three speeding tickets, and then woke up one morning to find the car gone, replaced with a BMW M5. Anna drove a ten-year-old Mercedes station wagon, the hand-me-down “nanny’s car,” insisting she didn’t want some flashy car for her sweet sixteen present. Anna knew there was no point in her driving anything nicer when it was only going to get covered in dog hair and slobber. Anna was only permitted to drive in Connecticut, her dad being much too overprotective to let his precious baby girl drive in bad weather or in the city. “Remember, you’re still half Korean, which means everyone will assume you’re at least half a lousy driver.” Anna hated when her father joked about racial stereotypes, but as a good Korean daughter, she knew that correcting her father was impossible.

Finally she found a heart-shaped box addressed to her. She quickly opened the card to see her brother’s serial-killer penmanship: “Happy V-Day, Sis. I owe you big! Love, Steven.” She turned the box over and saw that he had sent her a dozen of her favorite chocolate mice from Burdick’s. She slipped it into her purse and continued looking. Not finding anything, she nearly gave up when she noticed a plain square cardboard box with her name written across the top in Sharpie. She only had time to scoop it up, having just received a text from Thomas, her driver, who was out front waiting to take her to Westminster.

Hurrying down the empty hallway, Anna wondered what was in the box. She had a feeling she knew who it was from, and the thought of him made her heart pound. She almost hoped that it was just some routine gift from her boyfriend but she knew in her gut that wasn’t the case. A twinge of guilt at how excited she was that it might not be from Alexander rattled her nerves, but only slightly, not enough to erase the giant smile from her face.

III

Kimmie stood outside the front of her mom’s apartment building, waiting for their Uber driver to arrive while Danielle ran back upstairs to get her nearly empty bottle of under-eye cream. Her mom’s itinerary was a trip to the doctor’s office and then a little shopping at Saks, which was only an avenue away from Dr. Becker’s office. Kimmie’s plan was a trip to the doctor, a refusal to accompany her mom to Saks, then back home to bed to continue watching My So-Called Life, an old high school show she’d found after a deep dive on Netflix.