She inhaled. And sat back on the sofa staring into the eye of the blank TV. “I’ve suspected something for a while. But you know my father. Always the salesman. Always wooing his force into a mentorship of adoration. I figured—hoped, I guess—that Sue was part of the usual pattern.” Her fingers twisted the tissue. “But his attention continued long past the usual first year. And they disappeared at the same time.” She shrugged. Her voice was monotone, as though she had told the narrative to herself to make sense of it while her hands continued working the Kleenex. “At first I thought it was coincidence. But.” A sigh floated. “Then I switched my days of work, had to because of Sara’s field hockey practice, and I realized they were both gone for two hours on those days. Didn’t answer their phones. I wasn’t hunting for anything, you know?” She turned to me. “I didn’t want … it didn’t occur to me, that my best friend would sleep with my dad. That my father would sleep with my best friend. Didn’t occur to me.”

“Jeannie,” I whispered, filled with concern for her.

“But then I had an optometrist appointment and it was on my workday. The waiting room is a storefront with that tinted glass you can see out of but can’t see in through. I saw Dad leave the apartment building across the street. Two minutes later, here comes Sue. I watch her. She looks both ways and then walks away happy. Her hair bouncing on her shoulders like it does.”

Jeannie clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “I thought I was going to be sick. I sat through the appointment. Don’t know how. Just sat there ’cause I didn’t know what else to do. Too frozen, confused to do anything but what was next on my list while my world crashed.”

“How’s your mom?”

Jeannie was pale, her cuticles picked at, and her nails striped in ridges. “She doesn’t know any of this yet. She’s all excited about the trip they’re taking to Italy and studying Italian.” Her sobs resumed and then she shook her head. “Marnie? What do you do when you lose your best friends and your father simultaneously?”

“You haven’t lost your father.” I sipped my coffee. “Have you talked with him?”

“I don’t know how to even broach the subject. It’s so creepy. Him sleeping with my best friend. Almost like me.”

“Sue’s not you.”

Jeannie shook her head again. “I don’t know how Rosie could do this.”

“I guess she felt in the middle. Couldn’t break a promise to Sue.”