He sat her at the kitchen table, served her corn soup, and told her how guilty he felt for sending her out into the world without an umbrella. She didn’t like corn but gobbled it all up.

“How was it?”

“Good,” she replied. “Really good.”

He smiled with satisfaction. “I didn’t think that after only a few hours I’d find myself like this,” he said.

“Like what?”

He blushed. “Missing you.”

She smiled. Spotting the Lonely Planet Germany travel guide on the table, she asked, “Researching ideas for new posts?” He said no. He sat down beside her and said he was starting to prepare, in the event that she decided to stay for more than two weeks. In that case, they really would have to go to Berlin together, to take more photos. “Otherwise people will start getting suspicious. And it doesn’t hurt to stock up on photos.”

“Maybe,” she said, taking a few moments to savor the idea of the two of them in a four-star hotel, sitting on the balcony gazing out at some river. If they even had a river over there.

11.

SHE BEGAN TO realize that the upkeep of a fake life took quite an effort.

They spent hours each day drawing a detailed map of all the places she visited, the dishes she ate and the shopping she did, searching for post-worthy moments. The real satisfaction came when she finally let her imagination run wild. For instance, the post she wrote about sneaking into an event thrown for the Mayor of Berlin, or the photo she uploaded of a beer bottle she had spilled over a married German man who tried to pick her up. She was pleased by the likes and comments of people who didn’t bother to conceal their jealousy, relished the thought that maybe someone was looking at her profile the way she used to look at other people’s.

They spent a considerable part of their day together, but there were moments when Michael would withdraw into himself for no apparent reason. He’d disappear from the apartment for hours at a time, or spend all morning in bed, brooding, an indecipherable look on his face.

“This isn’t easy for me,” he admitted. “Being on my own for an entire year and then suddenly spending all this time together.”