“And you have a good time too,” Stevie said, grabbing her long black puffer and tucking her clutch under her arm.

“Oh, it’ll be a quiet night in for me,” Teri said, waving at us as she curled up on the couch. “I’ll see you guys in a few hours.”

“We’ll probably be back by midnight,” Stevie said.

“Or one,” I said as I put on my navy coat with its wooden toggles and faux-fur-lined hood. Stevie raised an eyebrow at me and I just shrugged. “It’s New York!” I said, trying for breezy. “Who can say what’s going to happen?”

We waved to Teri, then left the guesthouse and darted across the back lawn of the Tsai house. Stevie had parked a ways up the street, better to deflect attention.

As though we’d discussed it, neither one of us spoke as we ran across the lawn and then out to the street—it would have been the actual worst to be busted before we even had a chance to do anything.

It was like I could practically see our night stretched out ahead of me, and just the anticipation of it was making me smile. We were going into New York City, at night, all dressed up, just the two of us. We were going to celebrate Stevie in style. I was going to give her a great birthday dinner. And I was also going to make sure that for both of us, the rest of the year was going to work out. It was going to be an adventure, and it had been far too long since we’d had one of those.

We got into Stevie’s car and slammed our doors at the same time. Stevie looked over at me and grinned as the interior lights started to fade down. “Are we really doing this?”

I smiled back at her. “We really are.”

“Here we go then,” she said as she signaled and pulled out onto the road.

“And anyway,” I said as I reached for my seat belt and snapped it in, “we’re just going into the city for a few hours. What’s the worst that could happen?”

PART TWO 4:15 p.m.–5:25 p.m.

This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen.

—William Shakespeare, King Lear

CHAPTER 5