“These are still my favorite,” she says now, fanning out a diminished stack of soft-cover notebooks, part of my New York Parks series. Botanicals—they’re always going to be popular, but I’m pretty proud that there’s not a single Bloom Where You’re Planted in sight. “But right now it’s that pink houndstooth I can’t keep in stock! I wonder why?” She grins over at me.

“She’s the best,” I say, smiling as I think of Lark, who’s made sure to be photographed with her new Harbinger planner twice since she’s gone back to LA—without Cameron—where she’s started filming a rom-com series for a massive streaming platform. But even beyond those supposedly candid paparazzi shots, whenever she posts something on her social media from the set, she makes sure that planner is somewhere in sight—on the small banquette table inside her trailer, resting on top of the crinkled, marked-up pages of her script, on her lap while someone touches up her makeup, her hair up in huge, bright purple velcro rollers, or tucked under her arm while she and one of her costars pose for a goofy selfie.

she always texts me, right before one of these posts goes up.

We stay in touch, texts and phone calls and twice, her visits back here. Secretly, I think me and Sibby and Lachelle all hold out hope she might come back to the East Coast for good. But each time I see her big, toothy smile in the California sunshine, I get the sense that maybe Lark is in her true home.

“What I’m thinking,” Lachelle says, “is that it’s time for coloring books. Exclusives, for this shop. I know you turned it down before, when all the trial stuff was happening, but now you could—”

We’re interrupted by the door to the shop opening, and I sense him even before I look up to see him.

Still, I like to look up and see him there. Tall, lean, triple-take-face Reid, his eyes lighting on me immediately, not a trace of sadness in them.

“Good evening,” he says seriously, always more formal when there are other people around.

“Oh, here he is,” says Lachelle. “Listen, I need your help with this payroll software. Now there’s this whole section about allowances for—”

“Lachelle,” I say teasingly. “He’s not a small business consultant.”

“What’s it matter?” she says. “He knows the numbers. So anyway, I need . . .”