It’s Jess who remembers, but it’s me who makes us rush. Quick, quick, as fast as we can: Clothes thrown on our bodies. Keys shoved in pockets. We ransack Jess’s pathetic pantry for contributions. We grow wings. Then we fly as fast as we can to the Lily Pad, hoping that we’re not too late.

By eight p.m., the rice was refusing to come together, the temperature had soared because I’d forgotten to turn the oven off, my arms hurt from risotto stirring, and Ros still hadn’t shown up.

Patience. Patience. Patience.

“So, Oliver,” Touchstone said, his teeth turned slightly purple with wine, “how does it feel to be on the worst show on television?”

“Andrew, why would you bring that up?” Audrey asked.

“Yeah, come on, man,” said Phoebe. “We haven’t even had dinner yet.”

“It’s nothing I haven’t heard before,” said Oliver. He turned to Touchstone. “You think you’re the first person to ask me that? Even I used to think it about my own show sometimes. You know, I originally wanted to do a Shakespeare festival this summer to prove I could be taken seriously—I wanted to put some distance between myself and Power Jam, to prove that I was better than the TV show. But now I think—well, I think that was kind of bad of me, honestly. Is Power Jam Citizen Kane? No. But it’s a show that people show up for every day and work really hard on. That kind of care—that kind of investment—that’s love.” He took a sip of his water. “Besides, if all our fans are as thoughtful and kind as Celia, I think we’re the luckiest group of actors on the planet.”

“Oh, that’s so moving,” Audrey said.

“Truly touching,” muttered Touchstone.

I wished Ros had been there to hear it. I kept my eyes on my risotto. I highly doubted he would have the same take if he knew that part of the reason I invited him here was to make Ros jealous.

Jess drives us through the night, rolling through stop signs, her foot heavy on the gas.

“Should we make up an excuse? Something wild?” she says.

“Up to you,” I say.

“Do any of your friends know about our plan yet?” she asks.

I shake my head no.

“What are you so scared of? You haven’t done anything wrong.”

“I’m not scared,” I say. “I’m just worried about how Celia’s going to react.”

“If she really loves you, she’ll be happy for you,” said Jess, though I have a sneaking suspicion that the opposite may be true.

In what seemed like a peace offering, Touchstone offered to take Audrey and Oliver down to the river. It was like the whole house exhaled. Phoebe joined me over the pot of rice.

“How’s it going?” Phoebe said.

“Still badly,” I said.