Annie had the benefit of experience on her side. She knew first-hand what having feelings for someone other than your wife could do. She figured if she talked to Rita about Beth Walsh, she could process some of her own feelings about Kristin.

“Do you have time for a drink?” Annie shot her old friend a hopeful smile.

“Sure.” Rita acquiesced more easily than Annie had expected. Maybe she’d been waiting for Annie to ask.

They headed for a pub around the corner and found a spot outside. While Annie got the drinks, she wondered what to say to Rita. The only reason Rita knew about Beth was because Annie had been so affected by it at the time, she hadn’t been able to keep it from someone who’d known her for so long.

Annie didn’t go about broadcasting how her partner had fallen in love with someone else. And she and Rita were not the kind of friends who shared the most intimate details of their private lives. They talked about Lou’s well-being and the book shop and their respective significant others in broad terms only. They were not best pals the way Jane and Beth had been.

“What did Beth have to say for herself?” Rita asked as soon as Annie deposited a glass of wine in front of her.

“I didn’t speak to her. She was gone before I was able to. Not that I would have said a whole lot. It’s in the past.”

“You sound upset. That’s why we’re sitting here, isn’t it? Because you want to talk about it?”

Annie nodded. “I had thought that by now Jane and I would perhaps be able to share a little joke about the whole thing. As a sign that it was truly behind us. But maybe it’s not. Maybe some things are too hard to get over.”

“For you or for Jane?”

Rita’s questions were on point this evening. If she kept them coming, Annie wasn’t sure she would be able to keep from opening up about Kristin.