“I know it’s stressful what’s going on with you and Ros. But I don’t know, Celia. I’m not trying to make this into a competition over who’s more in the wrong. But I don’t think you’re… um… killing it on the friendship front, either.”

“What are you talking about? I’m so good to them!”

“I’m not talking about Ros. I’m talking about me,” he said. “We’ve been hanging out for, what, almost an hour? You haven’t asked me about the workshop at all. You haven’t asked how it’s going with Audrey. You haven’t asked about any of the clown stuff. You haven’t even asked me how my salad is.”

“How’s your salad?” I said.

“It’s magnificent,” he said. “Look, I don’t like to bring this up, but, like, even before Ros and Jess, I felt a little left out. Like, you and Ros are always together, and I’m always a beat behind.”

“You’re not a beat behind.”

“I don’t know if that’s true. You went swimming without me the first night.”

“You could have come in,” I said.

“You went to the Dropped Acorn without me, even though you knew I wanted to come here with you. And you came here with Oliver.”

“Why do you say his name like that? Like he’s something that’s stuck to the bottom of your shoe?”

“Because guys like Oliver are competition.”

“For what?”

“Parts. Career success.” He bit his lip and fussed with his salad. “Girls.”

“I don’t think you’re going to be competing with Oliver for any girls.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he said.

“You know I think you’re a catch. I just meant that he’s famous—he could have whoever he wants. He’s not a regular person, like you and me. Although—he’s actually very nice,” I said. “You might like him if you spoke to him a bit.”

“Maybe,” he said. “Look, my point about the Dropped Acorn is that was a thing I really wanted to do with you, and you went without me.”

“We’re here now!” I said brightly.

“Yeah, but you chose to come here with someone else beforehand,” said Touchstone.

He picked at his salad, quiet. We listened to the babble of other customers, all of them joyful, having a good time. I felt guilt start to creep in. He was right, and I hadn’t noticed it. I had been a bad friend to Touchstone. This whole time, I had been a bad friend to Touchstone.

“How’s Audrey?” I said finally.

“We decided to be just friends.”

“Wait, really? What happened?”

“Nothing. It’s fine. It just… it felt better being friends than it did moving things along. Neither of us really felt into it, I don’t think. It’s no big deal. She and I are good.”