“All the time,” she said, looking up at him. The snowflakes were settling on his hair. “But usually it’s exactly five seconds after I just said the thing that got me into trouble.”

He looked serious. “Well. Okay. You’re cold; are you sure you won’t take my coat?”

“Don’t be ridiculous—you aren’t wearing enough as it is.”

“Well, I’m glad you care,” he said.

“Did they not tell you in Brazil it was going to be cold here? Are Quakers not allowed Christmas, birthdays, and weather?”

He laughed. She glanced over her shoulder into the café. Blair was staring at his phone and frowning and sneaking looks at her.

“I should go,” she said.

“I am going to the Quaker house. They have a meeting there and a homeless clothing drive.”

“Cor. You really are very Quakery.”

“I’m not really,” he said. “Well, apart from the Christmas thing. Loads of Quakers celebrate that. We just never got into the habit in my family. But sometimes it is . . . comforting, in a foreign land, to sit among brethren, doing familiar things. You don’t have to believe all of it. And it is good to sit among silence sometimes.”

“I can see that,” said Carmen. She frowned and remembered something she’d read somewhere. “Hang on. Is it true that Quakers can’t lie?”

“Yes,” said Oke. “Although that may be a lie.”

He saw her face.

“I am joking, of course. I am going to visit my favorite tree.”

“You have a favorite tree?!”

He nodded, and she was about to ask more when the coffee shop door banged behind her.

“You abandoned me!” said Blair. “All those people, just looking at me. It’s a security issue, you know.”

“Is it, though?” said Carmen, skeptical.

Oke looked at both of them. Blair looked him up and down, then turned the full beam of his attention onto Carmen.

“You must be freezing,” said Blair, performatively taking off his new expensive jacket and covering her shoulders with it. “Come on. Let’s go have fun. And also, can you phone the airline for me again? My seat change hasn’t come through. Nothing works. Christ, it’s awful.”

“Nice to see you,” said Oke, and Carmen smiled, glad he wasn’t annoyed. He turned up the steps toward the Quaker meetinghouse as Blair was about to take her back to the café.

She excused herself and dashed back in.