The woman turned and looked at us. She had to have heard everything we were saying about her. For someone so dressed up, her face was remarkably plain. She wore no makeup and her skin was dull. More than that, she looked extremely unhappy. She walked out of the gallery, leaving us alone.

“We chased her off,” I said.

“Yeah . . .” Jerome detached his hands from my hips. “Still not following you.”

Just like that, the moment blew away. There would be no kiss. Instead, we were both confused.

“You know what?” I said. “I’m going to go to the bathroom for a second.”

I tried not to run through the maze of rooms, past the pictures of fruit and dogs and kings and sunsets, past the art students doing sketches and the bored tourists milling around trying to look interested. I needed the bathroom. I needed to think. I was getting dizzier by the second. First, I saw a man standing in front of me that my roommate didn’t see. Second, I had just seen a woman standing in front of a painting, and Jerome hadn’t seen her. The first time kind of made sense. It was Ripper night, we were rushing back, we were scared of getting caught, it was dark. Yes, Jazza could have missed him. But there was no way Jerome could have missed what I was talking about today—which meant either we didn’t understand each other at all, or . . .

Or . . .

I found the bathroom finally, and it was empty. I looked at myself in the mirror.

Or I was crazy. Healing Angel Ministry crazy. I certainly wouldn’t be the first in my family to see people or things that weren’t there.

No. It had to be simpler than that. We had to just be misunderstanding each other. I paced the bathroom and tried to come up with some interpretation of his words that made it all make sense, but nothing came to mind.

Boo came in.

“You all right?” she said.

“Uh . . . yeah. Fine.”

“You sure?”

“I just . . . I must not be feeling well. I’m just a little confused.”

“Confused how?”

“It’s nothing,” I said.

I went into one of the stalls and locked the door. Boo stood outside.

“You can tell me,” she said. “Honestly. You can tell me anything, no matter how weird it sounds.”

“Just leave me alone!” I snapped.

Nothing for a moment, then I saw her feet backing away from the stall. She paused by the door, then I heard it open. I looked out to see if she had gone. She had. I emerged and went to the sinks. “I misunderstood,” I said aloud to myself. “That’s all. I don’t get the English stuff yet.”