I turned the key in the ignition, the car revving to life. It was one o’clock – Vera must be home by now. I began to drive. As I pulled out of the parking lot, a cruiser followed. I squeezed the wheel tighter to keep my hands from shaking.

The police car tailed me the entire way through town. When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I made a split-second decision and turned onto Tinker Street, pulled into a parking lot, my breaths calming ever so slightly as the officer drove on. Fingers fumbling, I fastened my coat, tumbled out of the car and into the cool air, thin and crisp.

On the main street, I turned left, shoving my hands deep into my pockets as I walked aimlessly, trying to figure out my next step. I had screwed it all up royally, maybe even worse than I ever had before. I had chosen my escape incorrectly. I’d wanted to find a way to cling to the life I’d created in my twenties. I hadn’t been willing to pull off the Band-Aid – I still wanted one foot in New York. After the night it all went to shit with Davis, I should have just driven out of town, gone west. Made that first email to Ellie a truth and not a lie.

Suddenly, I hated Woodstock. I hated its stone sidewalks, its overly forced progressiveness. Its hippie shops and its fresh fucking mountain air. I hated it all.

‘Oh.’ The word spilled from my mouth as I turned a corner.

There she was, in the alley next to Schoolhouse. She was leaning against the brick wall, scrolling through her phone with a fingerless-gloved hand.

‘Claire,’ I said, as if testing the name on my lips. ‘You’re here.’

It was a stupid thing to say – she worked here, after all – only I thought maybe she would have taken the day off.

Her head whipped up. ‘What, do you have more questions or something?’

‘No, I didn’t even know you’d be here, I thought –’

‘I don’t get the day off just because I have a funeral in the morning,’ she said. ‘Plus, if I called out, they’d only use it as one more reason to gossip.’ Her steely expression wavered just the tiniest bit, and under it, I could see how it hurt her, being the center of a story she’d never wanted to be part of.

‘I’m sorry I chased you down this morning,’ I said. ‘I was just … shocked. I didn’t know you knew him. I mean, I didn’t know you were Claire.’

For a moment, her expression was unreadable, but then her eyes narrowed. ‘Well, I didn’t know you still had a boyfriend.’

A constricted feeling in my chest, as if my windpipe had shrunk three sizes.

‘What are you talking about?’