Her head turned toward him. “How did you know?”

He smiled, both at her and past her. “She was a very special person.”

“I miss her terribly.” A tentative smile broke out around the corners of her mouth. “Like during wartime.”

He nodded. “I understand.”

With anyone else, Julie would have assumed bullshit, but not with Whitman. She was certain he knew, just as she was certain he might be the only person alive that she could trust absolutely. “Knowing her changed me.”

“Sydny had a knack for that.”

“I’ll be forever in her debt.”

Whitman considered a moment, as outside the nighttime world slid silently by them. Then he said, “If she were here, she would be angry with you for saying that.”

Again, he had startled her. “Really? Why?”

“She’d want you to celebrate the change, not feel any obligation for it. A gift, she believed, is as much a pleasure for the presenter as it is for the receiver.”

Julie wiped away another tear. “Dammit!” she said crossly. “Why don’t I see any tears in your eyes?”

“I do my mourning in private.”

“Men,” Julie said, turning away to stare out the window, but it was clear by her tone that she was far from displeased. “Will you drop me off at home?”

“Later,” he said. “If you wish it.”

She turned back to him. “You mean I may not?” Her tone was now light, flirty, but not sexual.

He smiled.

“You should do that more,” she said.

“What?”

“A smile becomes you.”

*   *   *

“This building,” Julie said, as they pulled up in front of Charlie’s place, “it looks like something out of a Hitchcock film.”

“Vertigo,” Whitman said.

“Of course!” She seemed as delighted as a child, staring at it as they climbed out of the car and went up the front walk.

Upstairs, the door to Charlie’s apartment stood open. Charlie, Flix, and Lucy were waiting for them amid a celebratory atmosphere. There were drinks and platters of snacks to eat, even a balloon or two bumping up against the ceiling. And from the stereo speakers Hoagy Carmichael was playing “Star Dust.”

“Is it someone’s birthday?” Julie said, as Whitman introduced her around.

“Sort of,” Flix said.

“Kind of,” Charlie said.

“But not really,” Whitman added.

Charlie laughed at Julie’s expression of bewilderment, and fixed her a gin and tonic, after asking her for her choice.

“You’re here,” Whitman said, when they had all gathered in a loose circle, “to bear witness.”

“Like me,” Lucy said.

“To what?” Julie looked from one to another.

“A naming ceremony,” Charlie said. “We have decided—”