He cringed anew, remembering the knowing looks Guy’s friends had shared the night they ran into them at a restaurant in the Central Business District. Truman had thought they were just a bit snooty, as Guy was, but they had ignored him because they knew he didn’t matter. Knew he was just a pathetic side piece. They had been embarrassed for him.

His head spun with shame and mortification, and he winced.

“You’re into interior design,” Truman said. “Do they make floors that swallow you where you stand?”

Ramona snorted.

“Unfortunately, I think they’re still working on that one. But you know, any floor can be used to stand on while asking for what you want and need so that people have a chance of meeting your desires.” She squeezed his shoulder to soften her words.

“I’ve gotta get out of here. Go somewhere no one knows me. Somewhere people won’t see me walking down the street and think There’s that pathetic loser whose boyfriend has a secret family. Well, I guess they’re not the secret. I’m the secret. There’s that pathetic loser who’s his boyfriend’s dirty little secret. Kill me.”

“You know, you’re the second person to say that to me today,” Ramona mused.

“I’m the second person who asked you to euthanize them because they’re dating someone with a whole other life? God, maybe it’s you.”

Ramona laughed.

“You’re the second person who’s told me that they want to get out of town immediately.”

“God, I wish.”

“So go.”

Truman sighed. He wished he were the kind of person who left town at a moment’s notice. Who gave in to their feelings of heartbreak and drowned them in a fancy bathtub full of wine and cupcakes in a glamorous location far, far away.

But he wasn’t.

“I can’t leave. I’ve got Horse, and…”

“People with dogs do manage to occasionally vacation,” Ramona chided. “Can you take him with you?”

Truman’s first attempt to fly with Horse had also been his last. Usually a chill dog, Horse’s horror at flying had been unexpected—and his insistence on sitting in Truman’s lap for the three-hour flight to Philadelphia, while sweet, hadn’t been received well by his seatmates. Despite Truman’s mortified apologies for the whines (Horse), paws in their laps (also Horse), and constant stream of calming baby talk (Truman), his fellow passengers had been neither charmed nor placated.

“Yeah, Horse doesn’t fly. It’s a whole thing. And it’s Christmas, so people have plans. I can’t ask them to come over three times a day and walk a dog.”

“As I was saying, you’re the second person to say this to me today.”

Truman opened his mouth, and Ramona clapped her hand over it.