She sighed loudly. “Adina. Sometimes a sneeze is just a sneeze.” She sneezed again.

“Is it Diego?” Until now, Kate’s romantic relationship had been blessedly free of drama.

“No. He’s great.”

“Work?”

“No.” Achoo.

My pulse picked up. “What’s happening at work? Tell me. I’ll get it out of you eventually. It’s what I do.”

“I failed the bar.”

“You failed the…” I gasped. “Oh my God. I’m so sorry.” Kate had been a ghost all through winter, spring, and the early part of summer while studying for her bar exam this July. She’d holed herself in her apartment most nights and weekends. “When did you get the results?” I slid to the floor by the window with my legs stretched out in front of me.

“Last week.” Her voice was pained. “I haven’t broken the news to my parents yet.”

“Shit. Why didn’t you tell me?” I pressed my hands to the floor to stand up, then changed my mind. “Never mind. It’s not about me. What are you going to do? Is there anything I can do? Do you want me to draft a note to your mom and dad to break the news? I can spin it positively. Or write a letter of recommendation to the bar association?”

When we were little and got in trouble for one thing or another, I’d draft cute notes of apology, like “Kate and Adi are sorry we played Frisbee with your favorite plate and broke it. Here are some daffodils we pulled from the Oval.” I was also in charge of specialized birthday cards naming all the reasons we loved our mommies—and in her case, daddy and little brother—and pleas to go shopping for the newest hot toy or fashion accessory.

“I’ll pass when I take it again in February, but it looks bad. The partners treat me differently now, and the associates are smug.”

“You’re probably imagining it.” Even as the words left my mouth, I knew they weren’t true. Higher-ups were fickle, and peers could be competitive in any industry. Fuck. “I hate that I’m not there.”

“You’ll be home soon. Get me drunk as my last hurrah before I lock myself up again.”

“Deal.”

“Tell me something good. If Finn isn’t a townie, who is he? Who’s hotter, him or the handyman?”

“Finn. No contest.” I caught her up on the latest with Finn since my initial assumption he was a local, from learning he worked for the real estate developer to our almost-kiss less than an hour ago.

“I cannot believe you had an interrupted kiss. Was it as annoying as it is on TV?”

“Worse. And now I can’t yell at the characters for letting it happen. It’s harder to recover from an interrupted kiss than it looks.”

“Ha! I knew you’d meet someone in a small town.”