This cabin is so comically large, I get turned around, and since I don’t actually need a bathroom, I dart through a back door onto one of the many balconies. This one is a large, covered patio with a table and covered grill. It’s freezing, but the fresh air feels good as it burns my lungs. Below the deck, on the other side of a giant hot tub, is the Airstream, still hitched to Jack’s truck and parked in the snow.

It had seemed so romantic that night, the idea of living in an Airstream. Jack was adventurous and unpredictable, independent and fearless, so of course she lived with wheels under her. It felt like being with Jack meant I could end up anywhere.

But the next morning, when I stumbled out of the trailer in tears, the Airstream felt more like a metaphor for her impermanence. We were never meant to last. And I was naïve for thinking otherwise.

I grab the porch railing and try to breathe through the waves of anxiety rolling through me.

“Fuck, Dylan!” I hear Andrew’s voice before I see the source. A few dozen feet away, on a different balcony off the dining room, I spot Andrew stepping outside, quickly followed by Dylan, then Jack, then Paul Hollywood at Jack’s heels. The lights on my balcony are off, and in the dark, they seem collectively unaware of my presence.

“I just asked where you found her!” Dylan is yelling. “Did you hold a casting call for generic white girls who will ingratiate themselves with your parents?”

“She’s my fiancée!” Andrew shouts into the night. “We’re in love!”

I wince. I’m not sure we’re in love is something you declare quite so matter-of-factly if it’s actually true, but Andrew looks confident and stubborn in the glow of the porch lights. In front of him, Dylan looks positively feral.

“Is she pregnant?”

Jack breaks her silence with a guffaw. “Of course she’s not pregnant! Wait, shit, Andrew, is she pregnant?”

“No!”

“Is this a Walk to Remember thing? Is she terminally ill?”

“No, Ellie isn’t dying!”

“Does she need a visa? Is she Canadian?”

“No!”

“Are you secretly Canadian, Andrew?”

“No one is Canadian!”

“Then I just don’t get it!” Dylan throws their arms up. “What the hell? Years of running from commitment, and then suddenly you’re engaged after three months?”

“When you know, you know!” Andrew argues. “And with Ellie, I just know!”

The night goes quiet save for the sound of my own heartbeat thudding in my ears.

“What’s so special about her?” Dylan finally asks.

“Dylan has a point.” Jack exhales, and, concealed by darkness, I watch the wisps of her breath float around her face. “I mean, why her?”