“Splashing water on your face always helps.”

I excused myself to go to the bathroom, even though I was afraid of the pungency of it.

This time the bathroom was clean, and the garbage empty, but the smell was still there. I ran the water and did the breathing exercises that were supposed to combat feelings of claustrophobia. A breath in, four beats, a breath out.

Nathan was knocking on the door.

“Are you okay?”

“In a minute.”

I took one of Daphne’s floral hand towels and dabbed my eyes. Bye, Daphne; bye, Daphne’s hand towels; bye, Daphne’s sunset.

When I came out of the bathroom, Nathan was already wheeling her closer to the bedroom window. We could see the whole sky from Daphne’s hill.

“Better?” she asked, looking my way.

“Yes,” I said, feeling guilty that I was making her death about me.

“You okay?” Nathan asked.

“I said the word ‘corpse,’” Daphne said. “Sorry!”

She stared out the window, and I put my brush back into my makeup bag.

“What time is it?”

Nathan looked at his watch and said, “Ten minutes until sunset.”

“That’s soon,” she said, somberly.

She smiled at Nathan and said, “How do I look?”

Nathan gave her a warm smile and said, “Gorgeous.”

“Should we dance?” she asked.

“Whatever you want, Daphne. I’m here for you.”

Daphne and I were charmed by him, as if we were in some kind of competition. But we weren’t, really. In a few minutes I would be alone with him, and it made me want to burst open. We locked eyes, and I knew she wasn’t going to get up. She wanted to stop playing pretend.

“Time for the cup, I guess,” she said.

I went to the kitchen and took the glass full of Seconal “juice” and sniffed it.

It smelled sweet, and there were small white particles still swirling around the orange juice. The counter was covered in white dust and broken-open capsules. I had read the side effects for Seconal—anxiety, nausea, vomiting, and nightmares. I didn’t want Daphne to have any of these, but I knew she wouldn’t. This number of Seconal pills made you feel nothing at all. You just went to sleep and that was that. I could hear Daphne and Nathan talking, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. When I came into the bedroom, they both fell silent and looked at the cup.

“Let’s see how it looks,” Daphne said.

“I hope it’s not too bitter for you,” Nathan said.

Nathan took the glass from my hands and brought it over to Daphne’s side.

“I looked up Sunrises online. You know there’s a million ways to make them?”

“You should have just followed my recipe,” Daphne said.

“You didn’t have grenadine, though.”

“You did your best. It smells right. Where’s the cherry?”