“That’s what she said. She said they spent a year struggling with their feelings for each other before they slept together. God. Dad is madly in love with my best friend.” Her eyes narrowed and she sat back, looking straight at me, her eyebrows lifted. “Did she tell you? Did you know?”

“No. I didn’t know.”

“Shit. Did we go to Cozumel before or after Sue started fucking my dad?”

I remembered trying to put together a new history when Stephen was unfaithful to me.

Jeannie sucked in her lips so they seemed thin and turned down at the corners. The circles under her eyes were dark. She hugged her knees and curled into a ball. “I think of Mom and my heart sinks.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I sipped my coffee and started in on a muffin. The sharpness of the ginger was the perfect accompaniment to the situation, the spice along with a sweetness that was almost cloying. Food is always a great distraction and a comfort, but Jeannie was beyond the solace food provided. She held herself together with her arms. “I don’t even know how I’ll go to work tomorrow. How do I pretend everything is okay?”

“How do you know he’s leaving your mom?”

“I asked Rosie if there was anything else. And she said that he promised Sue he’d leave Mom after Italy.”

I cleared my throat. “That may be one of those usual lies married men tell their mistresses. A promise to leave their wife one date after another.” I’m thinking of Juliet, how Tom promised he’d leave after his son’s high school graduation, and then after his daughter’s graduation. Juliet waited for one date after the other.

“Do I tell my mom and break her heart? If I don’t, then I’m as bad as Rosie. Do I confront my father? Do I just quit my job and run away? That’s what I want to do.” She turned to me and her pupils were very light, almost yellow, and she kept them trained on me. “I want to pick up Sara and just start driving to a coast. Any coast. Start a new life.”

“You have too much at stake here. And what about your husband? You’re going to leave Mark? Have you told him?”

My questions hung in the air until she said, “He’s preparing for a trial next week. I can’t disturb him. I always have to make way for his job. I keep busy with Sara, then Rosie and Sue. And now … Now what?”

I tried to help her think of her options. She could tell her mom. Confront her father. And Sue. She could quit her job. She could talk to her husband. She could do anything.

But instead she did nothing.

Except lose weight. And then found an early-morning yoga class.