“Arman has, briefly. He said he was macho and not too friendly. I guess they spoke once about the telephone wires? We keep different hours. I’ve never even seen him.”

“It’s amazing to me how you can live next door to people and never once lay eyes on them, and other people you see constantly, even if you aren’t neighbors.”

Kiki grinned tightly.

“I’m sorry,” Sarah said.

“Why?” asked Kiki.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get in touch when we saw Arman in Reason. That was a really big deal for him and I’m sorry.”

“We’re really sorry,” Matthew added. Though as far as Sarah was concerned, it would have been great, sure, if Matthew had let Arman know he’d seen him on-screen, but reconnecting all together like this, so many years down the line—for both men this didn’t seem particularly notable. Matthew went years without talking to people that Sarah knew he considered close friends. This was about Sarah and Kiki, but really about Sarah because their loss of friendship was her fault. Because they hadn’t lost touch. Kiki had made an effort.

“Anyway, you’re here.” Kiki leaned forward. “So? How’s our girl? What’s she up to? I’m dying to hear everything about her. But I think I need to go slow because I can’t even deal with the fact that she’s twenty-four. She’s twenty-four, right?”

“Her birthday was last month,” added Matthew. “She—”

“She’s twenty-five.” Sarah cut him off. She tasted the sting in her mouth where she’d bled the night before.

“What’d you do? Did you celebrate with her?”

“We rented a boat,” said Sarah.

Some kind of fog lifted. Some kind of bottom fell out.

She ignored Matthew’s foot pressing down on hers. All she saw was Kiki’s gray eyes. Soon it would be nighttime. Soon enough she would lie in a strange bed, consumed with anxiety, made worse by the lie she’d just told and the many more she was sure to tell now that the first lie was out there. Soon enough she’d be nothing but a feeble cage for her thundering heart, but for now she was looking into Kiki’s eyes, shining with pure interest. “We rented one of those boats downtown. It was a little tacky but great.”

“Fun,” said Kiki. “Do you have any photos? You must.”

“She lost her phone,” Matt blurted, racing toward the opportunity to say something true. “I never seem to take photos anymore.”

“Both of our phones were stolen,” Sarah corrected. “Yesterday, actually.”

“Oh no.” Kiki poured the wine. “That’s such a drag.”

“We were mugged,” Sarah said. “At gunpoint.”

“What? Yesterday? You were mugged at gunpoint yesterday?”

Sarah nodded. “That’s how this happened.” She gestured to her face, as Matthew shifted in his chair.

“No,” Kiki said. “What happened?”