Since they parted on the train platform eleven days ago, Anna hadn’t seen him at all. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. One day last week she decided to sit with Beatrice at lunch, where they talked about how much fun they’d had at Jaylen’s party. And like a game of cat and mouse, neither girl brought up Vronsky’s name. When Anna asked whether Beatrice had stayed in the city that weekend, she had told Anna she’d come back to Greenwich on Sunday to hang out with her fam. She showed Anna a picture of her mother’s new custom Range Rover she had received as an early Valentine’s Day gift from Beatrice’s father. In the picture, Anna noticed Vronsky in the driver’s seat, but he wasn’t facing the camera. When looking at it, it took all her strength to not grab Bea’s phone and enlarge the photo so she could study his profile. Instead, she commented on how she always loved the giant red bows that arrived on new cars and wondered where they were made.

“No doubt they were assembled by tiny hands in China,” Beatrice said. Anna didn’t react, though she noticed that Beatrice realized her error and didn’t apologize, probably thinking Anna wouldn’t be offended since she wasn’t Chinese. This was exactly the kind of snarky comment Steven would make, so Anna was used to it even though she didn’t approve.

“Was your mother happy with her new car?” Anna asked.

“Yes and no, she pulled me aside and asked me if I knew of any reason why my dad would feel guilty enough to buy her a new car. She just got a new car two years ago, and my mother barely drives herself as it is.” Beatrice laughed, but again, Anna stayed quiet. She couldn’t help but feel like Bea was testing her, so she wanted to be careful with what she revealed.

“Did your dad have a reason to be guilty?” Anna took the bait.

“Depends on how puritanical your values are,” replied Bea breezily. “In my book, no. But does he probably have some new yummy twentysomething bouncing on his dick? Absoposilutely! My dad’s no saint.”

“I wouldn’t expect so, with you as his acorn,” Anna tossed out.

“Hot damn, girl! I always knew you had a little Veronica in there,” Bea squealed.