Joy gestures at the empty vinyl bench and he slides in across from her. He puts the notebook on the table and leans back in his seat. His eyes travel over her, dart to the waitress passing their booth, then swing back to her.

“You look like your photo,” he says.

“What photo?” She thinks of the Polaroids. Was there another? Her cheeks blush. They were in bed together in those pictures.

“The one you took with Dylan at the Grand Canyon. I always caught him looking at it.”

She frowns, trying to recall the photo. Then she remembers. She uploaded the photo to her cloud account in a password-protected file. She hasn’t looked at the image in years. How did Dylan get that photo? The sneak must have texted it to his mobile number when she wasn’t looking.

“He never stopped thinking about you. He was so in love with you.”

She rubs her thighs, apprehensive. She doesn’t like how he’s talking about Dylan in the past tense. “Where is he?”

“He intended to meet you here today. But then he decided that he wasn’t going to wait. He—”

She fists the material of her skirt. “Where is he?” she asks with more force.

“Joy . . .”

Her internal temperature spikes, prickling her skin. “Where is Dylan? Why isn’t he here?”

“He’s gone.”

“What do you mean, ‘He’s gone’?” Her hands start to shake. Her fingers turn ice-cold.

“He died three years ago in a plane crash. There weren’t any survivors.”

“What are you talking about?”

“He was on that American Air flight out of LAX.”

Joy shakes her head. That can’t be.

A loud roar fills her head. She hears Chase explain something about Dylan being at his wedding and having a change of heart about Joy. “He wasn’t going to waste any more time. He caught a flight home to New York to—”

“He was living in New York?” Joy cried.

“Yes.”

She presses her fingers to her lips, her eyes big. How many times had their paths crossed on the street? How many times had she left a restaurant before he showed?

Chase goes on to explain that Dylan was in a rush to get home to tell her that he loved her. He’d always loved her but had been too afraid to take the chance. And then she doesn’t hear anything at all.

“Excuse me.” She scoots from the booth so fast that she almost lands on her face, surprising them both. Chase is on his feet and tries to help, but she pushes him away. She dashes to the bathroom and braces herself on the sink. Her hands grip the porcelain edge, shoulders shaking, and she lets the tears fall.