Lily pats her shoulder. “Do I need to send you down to neuro?”

“You’re hilarious. One day I’ll actually get a brain tumor and then you won’t be laughing.”

“Oh, I will. And you’ll thank me. You’ll need someone to see the funny side.”

Thora turns away from the railing. “Why do we do this?” she asks Lily.

“Geriatric physiotherapy? Or were you speaking more broadly?”

“The first one.”

“In your case, I’d say probably unresolved issues from your mother’s early death.” Lily is one of the few people who knows Thora well enough to joke with her about this. “Also, I think you enjoy throwing yourself at something impossible. As for me—honestly, God knows. I sometimes feel like he just dropped me here to give you someone to talk to.”

“I don’t believe in God,” Thora says.

“Just as well. If you did, you’d probably want to fight him. Cause all kinds of cosmic ruckus.”

Lily’s trying to distract her. But Thora doesn’t want to push this thought away. She wants to call Jules and talk about it, but she’s away at a conference. Maybe it’s just as well. They’ve been arguing more lately. She can sense Jules slipping away. It’s a sad, tired feeling, like watching the same story play out for the hundredth time, the ending already fixed.

Thora yawns and runs her hands through her hair. She’s had it short since her mother died, the same age she started dyeing it pink, but her subconscious still thinks it’s long: her hands slip suddenly free, as if they were expecting it to keep going. She wonders if everyone feels it, this hunger to live every life, to exist as every possible version of herself. “There’s always a moment, isn’t there?” she says, flicking her cigarette end off the fire escape and watching it fall. “A moment when you choose. This path, or another one. What if I’d chosen something different?”

Lily looks at her sideways. “Then you’d be off the hook for your three o’clock.”

Thora sighs. “Remind me who my three o’clock is?”

Lily looks down at the roster. “Ooh, you’re in luck. Mr. López.”

Thora’s heart lifts. “I know you’re kidding. But this is genuinely going to be the highlight of my day. Is that desperately sad?”

Lily looks at her levelly. “I know you want me to say no. But the factory didn’t program me to lie.”

Thora holds the fire door open, letting Lily inside. “Come on, Lil, you know what a nightmare patients can be. It’s just nice to find one you get along with, once in a while.”

“Sure.” Lily pats her on the back. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Jules about your secret lover.”