“Oh, so you have a type now?”

Sherri couldn’t help feeling that she needed to introduce Roberta to this newer version of herself. She wanted her friend to recognize that she’d changed. “I do. You should see my boyfriend Mitch.” The word “boyfriend” didn’t sound right, especially after her encounter with Arthur. “He’s tall and blond. And he’s from California.” Sherri emphasized the last word the same way Roberta had said “England” when she’d dated Ian.

“Yeah?”

It was still strange to detect jealousy in her friend’s tone. It was such a new and heady experience for Sherri that, instead of being sensitive to Roberta’s feelings, she went further. “He drives a red Ferrari. He’s a stuntman, actually.”

“A stuntman for real?”

Sherri nodded her head. “He’s friends with Evel Knievel and everything.”

“You met him at the resort?”

“No,” Sherri said, looking off in the distance. “I met him in Texas.” She said this as if she’d been all over the world. She did not mention Sam. She knew that for the rest of her life, she would never mention him to anyone. He would settle in her memories like the stone Roberta had just thrown into the lake. “We stayed in this hotel in Galveston called the Galvez. It was so fancy that they even turned down the covers for us at night, and left chocolates on our pillows.”

“That sounds top shelf.” Roberta was straight-up jealous, and Sherri was being a first-class jerk. “He flew you out there?”

“Yeah,” Sherri lied. “We just knew we were meant for each other.” She thought not of Mitch, but of Arthur saying Sherri Taylor, I think I just fell in love with you. She added, “Like how you thought you and Ian were meant for each other.”

Roberta rolled her eyes. “Ian had two other girlfriends who worked at the camp, and another one back in England. When I found out, I cried into my pillow for a whole week.”

Roberta’s confession made Sherri feel guilty for baiting her friend, but there was more to it: she also recognized that something had changed in Roberta. She’d grown more mature, mature enough to admit things weren’t perfect in her life, while Sherri could see that she was acting like a dumb teenager.

Roberta’s tone was wistful when she said, “I’ll bet you meet all kinds of men at the resort.” It was a relief that they could finally talk about her job.

“I do,” Sherri said, “but to be honest, some are real creeps. This one guy told me he’d give me a hundred dollars if I’d wear his socks for a week. He took off his shoes, slipped them off, and handed them to me. They were all damp and practically steaming.”

“No! That’s gross. So what’d you do?”