In the bathroom, I turned on the faucet, stood over the sink, and watched the water drain down. Why did I feel so weird all of a sudden? Something about Jasper made me nervous. Everything just felt so much. Everything felt like . . . it mattered.

The thing is, Jasper was exactly right. It was the nicest morning I could remember in a long time. It was easy. We were friends. We were friends. Just like that. Talking about nothing much over breakfast, or walking home in the sunshine. It had been a long time since anything had felt so good to me.

I could feel it like weather. The way you sometimes know it will rain before you see a single cloud. I could feel the change of it, just like I had felt it at Red’s Farm the moment I saw her. What kind of girl sprawls on a rock in the sun, alone, and doesn’t feel embarrassed when you catch her? What kind of girl does her laundry in the creek? What kind of girl follows a stranger home, and then eats the last bagel, with a smile? She was like something from a book. Like I’d wished her into existence, though of course I knew that wasn’t possible.

I splashed water on my face and took a deep breath. Then I patted my face dry on a stiff towel and flushed the toilet.

When I got back to the table, Jasper was sipping her coffee and leafing through a National Geographic, which we got in the mail each month but nobody ever actually read. They just stacked up by the fireplace in a basket. Jasper pretended I hadn’t just gotten all weird and blushy a few minutes before, and she glanced up at me in a totally normal way as I sat down.

“Hey, so, anyway . . . ,” she said. “Where were you going this morning, when you turned up at the farm?”

“What?” I said. Then I froze. “Oh, no.”

“What?”

“Liv,” I said, reaching for the phone in my pocket. “I totally forget about Liv.”

I looked down, and, sure enough, I had four messages.

Where RU?

UR LATE.

I’m leaving now.

Thanks a lot.

I sighed, texted Sorry, and set my phone down on the table. “Ugh,” I said. “I was on my way to meet someone. I said I’d run with her. This girl I know.”

“Oof,” said Jasper, closing her magazine and looking up at me. “Sorry if I screwed it up with my crazy laundry situation.”

“Eh, it’s okay,” I said, sliding back down into my chair. “It’s not like it’s the end of the world. I’d way rather be doing this. And Liv will be fine.”

“Yeah,” said Jasper. “Not like someone died, or something.”

“Umm, yeah,” I said. “Nothing like that.”