“No. No. Hang on a sec.” Some rustling followed, and some low whispering that was probably him talking to Marie. “Okay, hi, Max is devastated.”

“I don’t want to talk about Max.”

“I’m sure you don’t. I just wanted to state for the record that Max is devastated.”

“How is that my problem?” She winced hearing those words coming out of her mouth. They were a defense mechanism. Because she was so confused. How could Max—Max—be devastated? How had he have gone from glibly asking her to move to Eldovia to “devastated”? Something was getting lost in translation.

“So it’s one in the morning, and you’ve called me to talk about something other than Max,” Leo said, with a hardness in his tone that was unusual. “Go ahead.”

“How was your honeymoon?” she asked weakly.

“I’m going back to bed. Call me later if you want to chat.”

“No! Wait.”

He waited, but she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know if she could say anything without crying.

He sighed, too, and when he spoke, he sounded softer, more like the Leo she knew. “If I had asked you, say, a year ago, when you were pretty much over Vince but he was dragging out the divorce, if you would ever consider another relationship, what would you have said?”

“A relationship that didn’t violate any of my list items?”

“Yes. A relationship that didn’t violate any of your list items.”

“I would have said maybe under very specific circumstances.”

“And what would those be?” he said with exaggerated patience, like he was talking to Gabby when she was getting hyper.

“They would be the circumstances dictated by the list, Leo.” She, by contrast, was sounding decidedly snippy. But honestly, Leo knew about the list. Why did he need this explained to him? “He would have to integrate into my life. Do things on my terms. I finally have everything arranged the way I want it. Career is good. I’m on track to get tenure. I can legit afford my apartment now that I’m renting it out every once in a while. Why would I give up any of that?”

“I know I’m supposed to issue a vaguely ‘You go, girl’ cheer, but maybe the answer is you would give that stuff up for something bigger.”

“Like what?”

“Love? Love that is not quantifiable in list format? Love for someone who doesn’t have the same flexibility in life that you do?”

“But I’m post-love. And Max is . . .” Devastated?

“Right.” Leo’s voice had lost its edge but had taken on a totally blank tone, which was somehow more upsetting than the exaggerated patience of a moment ago. “I gotta go. It’s one a.m. I’ll talk to you later.”

He hung up on her.

Chapter Twenty-Four