Of course, Leora had people to talk to beyond the many permutations of Laurens and Melanies. There were people at work, for instance—an ever-changing stream of Erics and Jeffs, with survival rates similar to Amsterdam’s. And then there were the people she knew from her synagogue, where she had never actually bothered to pay the membership dues since, after all, she didn’t plan on staying there very long. The synagogue was a little stricter and more traditional than she would have liked it to be, but she continued attending nonetheless, because almost no one under the age of thirty-five attended the more liberal ones. The people from the synagogue—Rebeccas and Debbies, mainly—were a slightly different breed from the Laurens and Melanies. The Laurens and Melanies liked to spend their Friday nights at bars, looking for men. The Rebeccas and Debbies liked to spend their Friday nights at a sabbath dinner table in a friend’s apartment, looking for men. As Leora took turns spending her Friday evenings one way or the other—either at a bar with the Melanies or at a sabbath dinner with the Debbies—she saw that there really wasn’t very much difference between the two evenings. The Melanies were looking for live-in boyfriends. The Debbies were looking for live-in husbands. The contenders for these positions in both groups consisted mainly of twenty-five-year-olds who tried to impress you by naming the companies they worked for, expecting you to care. One group turned their halogen lamps on and off on Friday nights while the other turned their halogen lamps on and off using programmable timers. A technicality. Conversation in both situations revolved around gossip and TV. For both groups, Friday night was the night to relax, enjoy life, and track down one’s soul mate, the big night Out. But nobody ever wanted to spend the evening simply thinking or dreaming, to make it the big night In. No matter how hard she looked, Leora couldn’t find anyone willing to follow up a sabbath dinner with a screening of Gandhi. And so, more and more often, she began staying in by herself on Friday nights, and sometimes Saturday nights and Sunday nights as well. After a while she didn’t mind anymore.