Lisa Parsons offered them a corduroy couch, low-slung like a beanbag. Heidi squeezed past the coffee table and claimed the middle. Kim perched on the armrest by the door, her body tipped toward the exit.

“Everybody.” Lisa Parsons spread her hands. “Meet Heidi and Kim, my mentees from the internet.”

Heidi splashed with heat at being placed on equal footing with Kim.

“Aw,” cooed the twig-haired woman, resting her bejeweled hand on the lesbian beside her. “Lisa’s so generous with the baby bears. You girls don’t even know she’s been working with gay youth for, what, three years?”

“Five.” Lisa Parsons blushed at the carpet.

“She was at BAGLY, but these days she finds kids on her own, helps them out big time.” The twig-haired woman twisted one twig punishingly tight. “What do you call it, Lisa?”

“Personal mentorship,” Lisa Parsons said, watching Kim and Heidi.

Looming over the girls, Lisa Parsons’s proud pancake face almost passed for professional. And maybe Kim could imagine someone was in love with her when all they wanted was to help gay youth. But Kim had quoted chats where Lisa Parsons made reference to acts more intimate than Kim and Heidi’s fighting. Once, Heidi had reeled to the bathroom, overwhelmed.

Lisa Parsons offered Heidi her latte. Heidi took a sip, then flooded her mouth with spit to dilute the heat. “The flavor of heaven,” she said. Maybe she wouldn’t have to wait for the next mysterious woman. If Kim wasn’t interested, Lisa Parsons could be Heidi’s chance. Why not? Bitter milk dribbled into her throat.

The women discussed vegetarian marshmallows and a menstruation aid called the Keeper. Heidi could take the train here every day after school. She’d claim she’d gotten into a play, but really she’d be perched on Lisa Parsons’s knee, laughing with everyone but pausing to whisper in Lisa Parsons’s ear a private jest or special memory.

“What’s your favorite subject, Kim?” Lisa Parsons asked.

“Math?”

“She means English,” Heidi said.

“What do you like about English?”

“This is stupid”—Heidi pitched her voice deeper—“but sometimes we give the books new plots.” Heidi loved the days they spent on Kim’s floor, Nancy at work or out with friends, sounding off without filter. Scout murdered Dill, Holden Caulfield grew up to become a Broadway producer. The kids in Lord of the Flies hitched a ride on a Disney Cruise.

“I was creative too, once,” Lisa Parsons said. “Sometimes I wonder how I ended up in medicine.”