Mia’s shoulders slumped and she looked away. She said something but because her face was turned away and she mumbled it so quietly, Lou couldn’t understand.

“I didn’t quite hear that,” Lou said.

Mia turned to her, her knee bopping up and down. “That was a long time ago,” she murmured.

“I remember every minute of it.”

Mia glanced at her, then quickly averted her gaze again, looking at her hands which she had gathered in her lap. She seemed to have shrunk a few centimeters and there was nothing left of the self-confidence she carried herself with around the Pink Bean—and which had annoyed Lou greatly.

“I’m so, so sorry,” Mia said. “I—I don’t know what else to say.”

“There’s nothing you can say. You did your damage a long time ago, that much is true, and nothing can change that now.”

“Have you, er, told anyone?” Mia asked.

“Amber knows. She’s the only one.”

“And those two guys you came to the Pink Bean with? The ones who treated me like dirt,” Mia said. It wasn’t a question. She was putting the pieces together in her head.

Lou nodded.

“Are you going to tell Kristin? Is that what this is about?” She cleared her throat. “I would understand if you wanted some sort of payback. If you would want to get me fired.” A tear trickled down Mia’s cheek.

“I don’t want revenge,” Lou managed to say. “I just wanted you to know who I was and remember what you did.” As she had done quite a few times over the weekend, she pondered again whether it would give her any kind of pleasure to inform Kristin about who Mia really was. But Lou knew it wouldn’t. This wasn’t about any sort of revenge. The tears that ran down Mia’s face in ever bigger streams didn’t give her the least bit of pleasure. This was the kind of situation in which not an ounce of pleasure could ever be derived. “Because it seemed to me like you had chosen to forget all about your former ways and present yourself like an entirely different person.”

“That’s because I am.” It came out as more of a howl than a string of words. “I am not that person anymore. I loathe the girl I was then. I’m ashamed of her—of myself.”

“As you should be.”

Mia shook her head while wiping some tears off her face. “I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do? I’ll do anything.”