“Give me your extended review later, we have to hurry.” Mia touched her shoulder and guided them through the small throng of people in front of them. “Annie’s will close soon and I haven’t stopped by yet. She’ll worry about me. And what message would it send if I didn’t go in and buy a book the Sunday before we’re about to go into business together?”

“I’ll forgive you the work talk,” Lou said.

“My work is so mixed up with my pleasure. We wouldn’t be able to talk about anything if I weren’t allowed to bring it up.”

Annie’s was just a few minutes’ walk away. Then Lou’s phone started ringing. She delved it out of her purse and examined the screen. “Oh, great.”

“What’s wrong?”

Lou showed Mia the phone screen while she let it ring, as if Mia should know what a phone call from Angie did to her, how much it irked her.

“Let me guess, your ex?” Mia asked.

Mercifully, Angie hung up and the phone stopped ringing. Only to start blaring again a few seconds later.

“Do you want me to pick up?” Mia asked.

“What?” Lou held the phone to her chest.

“I won’t be untoward, I promise.” She arched up her eyebrows. “Come on. That kind of insistence needs to be dealt with. Otherwise she’ll never leave you alone.”

Reluctantly, Lou handed Mia her phone.

“Lou’s phone. Mia speaking. How can I help you?” Mia said.

A brief silence.

“No, Lou’s in the shower right now. Should she call you back?”

Lou shook her head. Angie’s incessant calls had been irritating her, mostly because Lou didn’t have anything left to say to her, but this was perhaps a bit too much. Angie was not the kind of person, especially not in the state she was in now, to take a phone call like this in jest. Lou would probably pay for this later.

“Okay. I’ll let her know you called. Have a lovely Sunday.” Mia hung up and handed the phone back to Lou.

“She said she’ll call back herself. No need for me to give you a message.”

“Oh Christ. I can just imagine her right now, fuming, steam coming from her ears.”

“What’s her deal? Didn’t you break up months ago?” Mia asked while they started walking again.

“She keeps calling me. She even calls my mother. I tell her to stop. She does for a while. Then she has a bad weekend, one during which she misses me and sees the error of her ways, and starts calling again. As if a phone call is what it takes to get me back.” Lou shook her head.

“So it’s really over between you?”