Let’s meet in the middle.

They pick a diner in the Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax, which is nearly empty at hangover o’clock on the first day of the year. It’s been a long time since Lulu ate anywhere like this: a place that wasn’t trying to be cute, or stylish—that just, like, was. They don’t list a provenance for the coffee on the menu, or explain to her how it’s been brewed. She sits in a booth drinking a cup, black, and worrying.

Lulu expects Cass to show up looking wrecked, but when she arrives she’s just subdued. She doesn’t look broken, but she doesn’t look entirely like herself either. It takes Lulu a minute to work out why: She isn’t wearing mascara. Her eyelashes are pale ginger, faint and delicate against the cream of her skin.

Lulu was ready to comfort Cass while she cried. She has no idea what to do with the stoic, steely-eyed Cass who’s sitting across from her.

Cass breaks the silence. She says, “Hi.”

“Hi,” Lulu repeats.

The waitress tailed her in, so she takes Cass’s coffee order and they’re spared the pressure of making conversation for a minute more.

Then she bustles away, and it’s just the two of them.

“I—” Lulu says, but she can’t get the rest of the sentence out of her throat.

Cass asks, “So where did you go last night?”

“To Bea’s.”

“Oh.”

Talking to Cass has always been almost too easy. Now Lulu feels like she’s sitting with a stranger. “How did you— Did you end up staying long? At the party?” she asks.

“No, Lulu.”

“Did I miss something?” Lulu asks. “Something else?”

“No, Lulu.”

“Okay.” Lulu wishes she had done something right—with Bea, with Cass—so that people wouldn’t keep being so mad at her, but it’s too late for that now. “I’m sorry I left without you. I wasn’t thinking straight. I wasn’t thinking at all. I just had to leave. I felt like I was gonna die if I didn’t.”

Cass’s coffee arrives. She takes a long swallow and looks out the window. She doesn’t say anything. Then, after a while, conversationally: “He broke my heart, Lulu.”

“He what?”

“My heart, Lulu. He broke it.”

“I thought you guys weren’t—”