“I—” I lower my head. “The truth is, I’m mad at him because he’s taking you away.” It is a deep truth and a huge lie all at once. It shatters the scale.

“Kimberly—”

“We just got started. I don’t want to lose you.” My voice gets all clogged and annoying.

Zeke frowns. “Nothing happens immediately. It’s not until the summer. Not until I graduate. The job would start after that. That’s a lot of time to figure out what we want to do.”

We. The tiniest glimmer of hope flares, then fades. The reality of what is to come is too big, too heavy.

“In other words,” Zeke says, leaning toward me. “I have four months to convince you that you should come with me.”

EVA

In the end, it is just Mommy and me who get to enjoy the amenities. Daddy has to pass a test with a doctor so that he can go back to work.

Mommy lounges in a stretchy rubber chair while I splash in the big swimming pool until all of me is a prune. We eat fancy food that I don’t know how to say the names of. Some of it is yum. Some of it is yuck. (Snails? Ewww.)

“We should call Daddy on the phone,” I say.

“No, I don’t think we should,” Mommy answers.

JENNICA

Kimberly is leaving. She says she hasn’t decided, but I know her. Maybe better than she knows herself.

We snuggle in my bed, for the first time in weeks, while she tells me all about it. Her body is warm against my back and she has her arms around me. It’s perfect. It’s lovely. I could forget all of it, I could pretend that this is how it will be forever. But she won’t stop talking.

She promises to find me another roommate. One of the SCORE girls, or something. If she goes, that is.

She and Zeke will pack a U-Haul and tow his car behind it. If she goes, that is.

She says I can keep some of her furniture, partly because she doesn’t want to leave me in the lurch, and partly because it will be exciting for them to pick things out together for their new place, which will be small, of course. She has been looking at DC rental listings online for days. If she goes, that is.

It is a lot of talking about “ifs” for someone who hasn’t made up her mind.

I want to tell her, Don’t go. I even know what to say to convince her. I know her better than she knows herself.