Something was different about Anna Brody. Yes, she’d gained weight, but it made the sharp, hard angles of her face seem softer. There was also something more human, more vulnerable, about her.

“See, you can’t even look at me.”

That’s because now you’re even more beautiful!

“Sorry,” I said, my eyes locking with hers.

“Is this making you uncomfortable?”

Yes.

“I don’t mean for you to be uncomfortable. It’s the last thing I want. The whole point of this is so you can get beyond your feelings. So we can get back to what we had.”

I believed her.

“I love our talks,” she continued. “I love being with you. I love that you’re funny and sweet. And I love the way you tear up whenever you talk about Kate. It happens every time. I especially love that just the thought of having a weekend with me is ripping you up inside. That’s the kind of man you are. If it were easy, then I would have been wrong about you.”

What was I supposed to say to that?

“Maybe you don’t even want the weekend. Or maybe you can’t handle it, which is also fine. But if it’s going to make you act weird around me, then we should forget it.”

Me weird? Who offered the weekend? But did I ask that? No, instead, I stammered, “How would it, uhm, work?”

“It’s simple. We both clear our schedules. We meet somewhere. A hotel. We don’t speak of it to anyone, because we don’t want to hurt anyone.”

I must have looked perplexed.

“You know, our spouses.”

“Oh. Oh, right.”

“For one weekend, we forget everything and leave our lives behind. For one weekend, we do anything and everything. Whatever we feel like.”

Anna was cool and collected. We may as well have been planning a trip to Costco. “But you have to stop acting weird.”

Half a block back, Claudia called out, “Hey, you two, wait up!” She and Tess, dressed for Pilates, were hurrying to catch us.

“We’ll cover the specifics later. For now, Tim, just don’t think about it. It’s something we’ll do in May, if it makes sense at the time.”

“Okay, sure.”

“Anything you want to say?”

Oh, there’s plenty.

“Because at the speed they’re moving, you have about thirty seconds . . .”