Josh stood up. “Let me take that from you. Thank you. It’s very kind.” Lauren almost rolled her eyes. Josh had never really warmed up to Sarah, and he tended to get too formal around her.

Someday, though, they’d be friends. She knew it in her bones. Sarah was such a good person, smart and funny, and she loved dogs, as she was demonstrating by letting Pebbles lick her face.

“Hello, Pebbles, my baby! Hello! Hello! Yes, I love you best, doggy. These two don’t even come close.” She came over and sat on the leather chair. “How are you guys? What’s new and exciting?”

Josh and Lauren glanced at each other. “Um . . . nothing. Nice quiet day.”

“So you just fooled around. I get it. Damn you smug marrieds. Josh, please find me a husband.”

He looked at Lauren, and she made an encouraging face, letting him know it was a joke. “Yes, of course. It’s my top priority.” Good lad.

Sarah glanced at the oxygen at the base of the couch. “Rough day?”

“A great day. I’m just a little tired now.” Talking about her health was boring. “Hey, did you get the invitation to Mean Debi’s birthday party?”

“Yes! When did she deign to like me?”

“I have no idea.” Debi was a girl from their old neighborhood who’d been (and still was) a right bitch. “I’m not going. I’m only on the list so she can feel saintly.”

“I’m not going, either. I hated her then, I hate her now, I will always hate her. Remember when she told everyone my father was in jail?”

Lauren sure did. Poor Sarah had cried on the school bus, and Lauren had shielded her, pretending they were looking at a magazine while she handed Sarah tissues. “Let’s have a girls’ night that day and do something way better and post pictures everywhere.”

“Oh, yes. That’s genius. She’ll hate that so much.” They laughed, instantly reverting to sixth graders, which was the beauty of childhood friends. “She commented on the video you posted of Josh snoring, did you see that?”

“Thanks for that, by the way,” Josh said.

“You’re welcome. Cinematic genius, if I do say so.” Lauren pulled up her Instagram on her phone. The other day, she’d come home from work to find Josh asleep on the couch, a rhythmic snore-puff with each exhale. She’d very gently taped a Kleenex to his nose, careful not to wake him, and filmed him while Pebbles looked on, head tilted with curiosity, startling slightly as the tissue fluttered.

She still thought it was hilarious (and it had thousands of likes, so she wasn’t wrong). “Ah, here’s what Mean Debi has to say. ‘You’re amazing to still be having fun, despite everything. Hashtag PrayingFor-Lauren.’ Oh, my God!”