We were stuck in traffic on I-95 just past the New York/Connecticut border. According to the GPS there was a car accident a mile ahead, causing us to inch forward, painstakingly slow. One of the things I loved most about Andie was her ability to turn an annoying situation into an enjoyable one. Her road trip playlist was blaring Don’t Stop Believing through the speakers of Travis’s Audi sedan he’d graciously offered up for the trip. Andie was dramatically singing the words at the top of her lungs, intermittently miming an imaginary microphone in my direction during the chorus. The windows were down as we crawled forward, letting in the warm end-of-summer air. Every time we passed a car, the passengers looked in our direction, some frantically rolling up their window with a frown, others joining in as Andie passed the imaginary mic across the span of the two cars in their direction. Andie could make anything fun but her energy became a hindrance when we were doing more serious tasks, like trying to pay bills or clean the apartment, both chores that Andie loathed.

‘In one mile, take Exit 3, Arch Street,’ said the British female voice on the GPS that Travis had chosen.

‘Why is she British?’ I asked Andie, turning the music down.

Andie rolled her eyes. ‘Travis has a thing for British women. Well, let me clarify, he has a thing for British accents. Don’t even get me started on the accents he asks me to imitate in bed.’

‘Yeah, I’m good, no need to give me the gory details,’ I groaned, putting my hand in the air to stop her from elaborating.

Andie leaned in closer. ‘Sometimes he wants me to talk like I’m Helen Mirren. He has a thing for older women, too.’ Andie said in a Helen Mirren-esque voice.

I frowned, trying to force the newly formed image out of my head. ‘Stop. Now all I can think about is Travis getting a boner over Helen Mirren.’

Andie dissolved into a fit of laughter, leaning back into her seat.

‘You’re so lucky you have a job that allows you to take off at a moment’s notice,’ she said after she’d regained her composure. ‘Margaret was kind of a B when I requested today off. Like, hello? I haven’t taken a personal day since my birthday last year.’

‘Did you tell her that?’

‘I did, but I also included how she’d just taken two personal days to visit her daughter in Florida a month ago. She at least had the decency to admit I was right and stop fighting me on it. It’s not my fault I’m the only reliable technologist she has on staff.’