“Ri-i-ight,” he said. I walked away and his laugh slid through the bar, enveloping me.

The back patio of the bar was a series of long picnic tables, fences thick with ivy. Potted plants rimmed the edges of the concrete floor; strings of lights were draped across, lit even though it was day. A little storage nook had been built into the left-hand side, where one length of fence overlapped the other; the mops and buckets stored there were almost hidden behind a series of small trees.

I scanned the space, steeped in wan autumn daylight. A few men sat on the tables themselves, their boot-clad feet on the benches, women hovering nearby, hands stuffed into pockets. I felt a twinge of panic, unable to locate a safe place to sit and grade—there was a free table right in the middle, but I wanted to look casual, not like I was showing off—but crossing toward me now was Dominic, whom I hadn’t seen for at least a year, since college. It was almost unreal that he’d be here, yet this was Brooklyn, I was discovering: a graveyard come to life. We’d left things on a not-so-good note, I supposed I’d maybe blown him off, but he seemed to have forgotten all that or at least forgiven me, his face broken open with warmth. He was more attractive than I’d remembered, black hair sweeping down over his forehead. He walked toward me, confident, unhurried. I mirrored his expression, smiling, my face soft. I blinked long and slow. Quiet confidence, we were communicating something. Fancy meeting you here, how about that, we’ve found each other again after all this time.

I kept that expression on my face as he walked past me. He wasn’t looking at me at all, he was looking toward another girl, one he was now kissing. He had his hand on her hip, she flitted her eyes up at him, she tipped her drink toward him, he took a sip through the straw and scrunched his nose, said something probably about how it was too sweet, she laughed and swatted him on the arm, he kissed her again. The hot lava of mortification bubbled up in me. Who in this bar had witnessed my foolish open face, my starved smile, like I wanted to consume him?

“Dominic!” I called, to prove I really did know him. He didn’t hear. If anyone hadn’t seen my initial rejection, they knew now. “Dominic!” I said, louder, frantic even, and this time he heard me and turned. On seeing me, his joyful expression dissolved.

“Hi,” he said, eyes narrowed, and turned back toward the girl. She looked sidelong at me as he spoke to her.