I walked the few blocks to my apartment, where I was surprised and pleased to find Mogwai waiting for me. I spent a few minutes scratching under his chin while he purred and regarded me with a cryptic look; then I filled his bowl. Too tired to bother with cooking, I microwaved a bowl of ramen noodles for myself—hey, when you’re in your twenties, that’s a perfectly acceptable dinner—then sat down with Mogwai on my futon to watch some mindless TV.

At a little after nine, my phone buzzed. I glanced at it and picked up. “Hey, Jen.”

“Hey, Daise.” My best friend’s voice was listless. “I just wanted to call and see if you were okay.”

“I’m fine. Just tired.” Tucking the phone under my chin, I picked up the remote and muted the TV. “What’s up? You don’t sound good.”

There was a silence on the other end. “I don’t want to bother you. You’ve got a lot going on.”

“You heard?”

She gave a faint snort. “Are you kidding? Who didn’t?”

“Well, then you know I can’t talk about it, so you might as well tell me. What gives, girl?”

“Nothing.”

I stroked Mogwai. “Jen.”

She sighed. “Cody Fairfax called to apologize for leading me on last night. He actually gave me the whole ‘it’s not you; it’s me’ shtick. Can you believe it?”

“Maybe it’s true,” I said.

Another silence, longer than the first one. When she spoke, there was an edge of suspicion in her voice. “Did you say something to him?”

“Jen—”

“Don’t fucking ‘Jen’ me! I know you’re working with him now.”

“It’s just . . .” I made a face. This would have been a lot easier if I could have told her the whole truth. “Yeah, okay, I told him you needed someone stable, someone you could depend on. And that if he wasn’t going to be that guy, if he wasn’t interested in a real relationship, he shouldn’t mislead you.”

“You don’t know what might have happened! You had no right!” Her voice dropped. “But you’re not exactly a neutral third party, are you? You’ve got your own reasons for warning him off me.”

“Don’t—”

“Oh, fuck you!” She hung up the phone.