“I figure if I take good care of you tonight, you’ll be nicer to me when I see you at five tomorrow morning.”

“Never.” She winks.

How the tables have turned, Sherri thinks, remembering how Mike at the resort had so much power that all the Bunnies had to kowtow to him. Now this twentysomething Jimmy was at Roberta’s beck and call.

Sherri had been anxious about seeing Roberta, but she’s surprised she doesn’t feel more awkward with her. Some people are perpetually familiar. They make time collapse.

“Jesus, you look good, Berta. What’s your secret?”

“My son and I own the CrossFit studio on Main Street, where Neighbor’s Laundromat used to be. Remember when we used to spin each other around in the dryers, and Mr. Neighbor would chase us away?”

“He had that beautiful Ford convertible hardtop.”

“A Ford Fairlane,” Roberta says. “We did our homework there in the winter because the dryers were so warm.”

“Your house was always freezing.”

Sherri hadn’t thought about the laundromat in almost forty years, and suddenly she could remember it with startling precision, right down to the powdery scent of laundry detergent and the mesmerizing hum of the massive dryers. No wonder Sherri still loved the sound of a running appliance to this day.

Roberta says, “You know, I thought of you when we bought the building and they hauled the machines away. I found so many dimes and nickels. We used to search every corner for loose change for candy.”

“How do we even have teeth still? Remember how we wrote secret messages in the steam on the windows?” Sherri said. “The hearts with our initials. Yours and Trent Eagan’s.”

“Little did I know I’d one day marry the guy,” Roberta says.

Sherri is genuinely shocked. “Get out!”

“We had a good run until he left me for Kelly Eberjay a decade ago. Cut me in half. I was a mess. I blamed myself, thought I wasn’t pretty enough, supportive enough. That’s when I got into fitness. I needed a release. Jeanne, you remember her?”

“I do! She told me not to be a Bunny and after that I pretty much avoided her.”

“Sounds like her. She lives in the Cable house now, and she works for the DNR. She told me after the divorce that it’s such a relief to be middle-aged because people stop looking at you, and I was like, fuck that. That’s our consolation prize after busting our asses with work and raising kids? To not be seen? I hit the gym extra hard after that. I wanted to show Trent what he was missing out on. The irony is that now I could give a shit what he thinks. He and Kelly had a nasty divorce. And you know what she told me?”