“I mean, she’s got the yelling part down,” I said. “You don’t have to wait for me, you know?”

“I don’t mind,” said Jess, and she honestly sounded like she didn’t. “I’m glad to have some time with you. I know how much you mean to Ros.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said.

“Seriously,” she said. “They talk about you all the time.” This left me surprised. I was under the impression Ros forgot me the second they left the Lily Pad, but it seemed like Jess was actually being sincere. And she didn’t need me to hurry; she was content to walk along as slowly as I walked.

“We just don’t do a lot of marathon running at the costume shop, you know what I mean?”

Jess, to my surprise, laughed.

“I totally know what you mean,” she said. “Well, I promise you, the lagoon is worth it, even if it is really crowded. Honestly, just go at your own speed. We’ll get there when we get there.”

I was determined not to like Jess, but she was incredibly nice and also hiked with me, instead of soldiering on ahead like the rest of my friends. I wondered if this was what Ros liked about Jess: both her kindness and her ability to match pace.

We made it eventually. Jess hadn’t lied about the lagoon being worth it. It was a deep pool created by a big waterfall, bounded by big, flat rocks, on which the entire raft of humanity reclined, at least the ones who weren’t swimming. It did seem, as Audrey had claimed, like a scene: I recognized a handful of people from the festival, including the dance captain from Into the Woods, the intern from the scene shop I’d once walked in on crying in the bathroom, and even the janitor named Lou who Phoebe always said hello to.

I wished that Phoebe were here with us.

“I feel like I’m guaranteed to run into my ex here,” said Jess as we picked our way across the boulders.

“Would that be a bad thing?” I asked, the nefarious wheels of my brain turning. Maybe I could somehow orchestrate Jess falling in love with her ex, if I couldn’t get Ros to fall out of love with her.

“I mean… it wouldn’t be a disaster. I just wasn’t very nice to her. I don’t like being reminded of how I treated her, you know? I don’t like being reminded that I’m capable of being really mean to someone.”