“What would I say?” Lara said. “Jenna, your boyfriend is too dumb for you? It’s not like I can choose who she likes, it’s just a mystery to me, that’s all.”

“Maybe she needs to hear it,” Alexis said.

“Kenny is back from Minnesota tomorrow, actually,” Lara said. “I guess I’ll know soon.”

“Can I meet Jenna?” Alexis said, smiling slightly. “You’ve intrigued me.”

“I can ask.”

“Please do,” Alexis said. “I’m bored out of my mind here. I need someone new to talk to.”

“She’s one of my favorite people,” Lara said. “I don’t want you to think I don’t like her. She’s always been there for me.”

“You can’t ask for more than that,” Alexis said, with a smile Lara couldn’t guess the meaning of. They changed the subject.

♒

When Lara reached Jenna’s doorstep a few days later she heard her arguing with someone inside. She knocked, then just let herself in.

Jenna was standing in the middle of the room holding a wine glass and talking on the phone with someone. She looked surprised when she saw Lara, who mouthed, Ready to go? at her. Jenna nodded and ducked into her bedroom, where she hung up and reemerged wearing a blue dress and a big parka.

“My mom,” Jenna said apologetically.

“No worries,” Lara said.

“Yeah, you know.” Lara thought Jenna looked a little worried as she closed and locked the door to her apartment.

“I’m looking forward to meeting your friend,” Jenna said once they were downstairs.

“Yeah, she is too.”

“She’s like, queer studies–oriented, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool. I’ll try not to embarrass myself.”

Jenna seemed preoccupied and kept staring off into the distance when Lara tried to talk to her. When they got to the bar, Alexis was already there, in a booth by a window. She was drinking a gin and tonic and reading The Remains of the Day. She waved to Lara.

Lara sat down next to Alexis and introduced the two of them. Jenna formally shook her hand, which Alexis seemed a little affronted by. Lara took in the contrast between them: Alexis was wearing an asymmetrical leather jacket and those pink triangle earrings that Lara had secretly decided were tacky. She was a few inches taller than Jenna, who looked comparatively tame in her practical winter coat and boots.

“I’ve heard about you,” Alexis said.

“Oh god, Lara, what have you told her.”

“Only good things.”

“I’ll choose to be reassured,” Jenna said.

“Lara told me you’re brilliant.”

“That’s not quite the word I would use,” Jenna said.

They went through the inevitable sparring stage — comparing reference points, talking about past work, talking about ambitions. None of them had really done anything yet, so most of the conversation was inevitably about interests, directions, speculations, “ideas.”