“And listen, maybe you will be good together, maybe you won’t. But you need to come to each other as two adults, not as two weird, horny teenagers. You need to actually take each other in as the people you are today.” She gestured toward another group at the far end of the bar, motioning for Georgie to take their order. “It took me years to see Dimitri like that—it’s why I waited so long to have kids, I think. I couldn’t fully see him until he stepped up with the restaurant and followed his dream, because it still felt like we were our crazy kid selves. But one day I kind of looked over and thought, oh shit, that’s a man.”

“I had that thought when we hooked up in the hotel, honestly,” Alex laughed, taking another sip of her drink.

“I’m not just talking about the sex,” Louisa clarified. “Although, as a very pregnant woman, let me say I am extremely jealous and would love gory details about a man who isn’t my husband.”

“Happy to provide.” Alex winked.

Louisa reached over and put her hand on top of Alex’s in a surprising moment of tenderness. “Lex, I’m serious. You’ve been talking to me about this man for literally over a decade now. I say you go and see if it’s worth a shot, for real.”

“What if he just says no again?”

“I don’t know,” she answered, flagging Georgie down for a bit more ice water. “What if he says yes?”

The sunset always took forever to come at Kynosoura, and then it seemed to come all at once, slipping behind the Mediterranean like an extinguished candle. Alex had been on the beach for hours, sitting on a lounger Louisa had set aside for her and alternating between thinking and reading her book. Their conversation was more than playing catch-up with an old friend, it was like an afternoon with her former self. This was a place full of nostalgia and joy for her, yes, but it was also a place where she had worked. It was a place where she felt equal to people, where she felt proud of herself each day—a place where she never had anything to prove or anything to hide. She felt here the way she did at her office back in Philadelphia, and she swelled with emotion at the thought of being back at her desk with Clara and the rest of the team. She thought about all the campaign events they would attend in the fall, the beautiful and challenging work ahead of them.