“Thank you,” she said. “For real. And honestly, yeah, Addie is my twin and I know her better than anyone, but that doesn’t mean she has to be my favorite.”

“And, ugh, whatever, favorites are kinda toxic, I know. It’s fucked up to need to rank things because it implies there’s a single best thing, and that’s such a shitty capitalist mindset. But you know what I mean. I love you—yeah, that’s the one.”

Greta grinned. “I love you too.”

“Okay, good. Well.” Maggie’s voice was a little rough. “I gotta go eat. I’m glad you called.”

“I’m glad I did too.”

Greta slid her phone back into her pocket, vibrating with a kind of giddy excitement in the aftermath of the conversation. It wasn’t about whether she was going to move to New Orleans. Not really. It was about what she had the capacity for. And suddenly her capacity seemed limitless.

“I could move here. Or anywhere. I can do whatever I want,” Greta whispered to Horse.

Horse nuzzled her stomach, as if to say, You absolutely can! Let’s keep walking, huh?

Without realizing it, Greta ended up on Carys’ street. It was rude to just stop by, surely. Maybe she could stroll past and shoot Carys a quick text, like, Hey, I’m nearby. Wanna pet Horse?

“We’ll just walk by, okay?” she said to Horse.

Horse loped easily down the street in front of Greta, almost like he was leading her to Carys’ house.

But before she had the chance to recompose the text in her head, they were nearly at Carys’, and there she was on the porch with Helen and Veronica.

“Greta?”

“Uh, hey,” Greta said, flustered. “We were taking a walk and…um.”

“Come have a drink!” Carys waved her onto the porch.

Greta wasn’t sure if she should hug Carys or kiss her, so it was a relief when Horse interposed himself between her and everyone on the porch.

“Well, who’s this angel?” Helen said. They crouched down in front of Horse and let him enthusiastically lick their face.

“This is Horse. He…uh…he’s this person Truman’s dog and…”

“Oh, Carys told us about your house swap,” Veronica said. “I love it. It’s so early two thousands.”

“Uh, thanks?”

Carys was smiling and looked pleased to see her. She waited until Helen was fully licked and then squeezed past Horse to slide an arm around Greta’s waist.