“I see. Why was that question so hard for you to answer, John? My life just keeps getting better and better. Does she like you?”

“It doesn’t matter, Sarah. I love you, so Six doesn’t matter. No other girls matter!”

“I feel like such an idiot,” she says, crossing her arms.

“Stop, please. Sarah, you’re misinterpreting everything.”

“Am I, John?” she asks, turning her head and staring fiercely at me with tears in her eyes. “I’ve gone through so much for you.”

I reach out and try taking Sarah’s hand, but she snatches it away the instant our fingers touch.

“Don’t,” she says, a hard edge in her voice. Her phone buzzes again in her jacket pocket, but she doesn’t make a move to check it.

“I want to be with you, Sarah,” I say. “Nothing I say right now seems to come out right. All I can really say is that I’ve spent weeks missing you terribly, and there hasn’t been a single day that I didn’t think about calling you or writing a letter.” I feel wobbly. I can tell I’m losing her. “I love you. Don’t doubt that for a second.”

“I love you, too,” she cries.

I close my eyes and breathe in the cool air. A bad feeling rushes over me; a prickly feeling that starts in my throat and claws its way into my shoes. When I open my eyes, Sarah has taken several steps away from me.

There’s a noise to my left, and I whip my head to see Sam. His eyes are downcast, and he bobs his head in a way that tells Sarah and me that he’d rather not be approaching but he has to.

“Sam?” Sarah asks.

“Hey, Sarah,” he whispers.

Sarah wraps her arms around him.

“It’s really good to see you,” he says into her hair. “But, Sarah, I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry and I know you guys haven’t seen each other in a long time, but John and I need to go. We’re in a lot of danger. You have no idea.”

“I sort of do.” She pulls off of him, and just as I prepare to start reassuring her how much I love her, just as I’m about to start saying good-bye, chaos erupts.