At this, Frankie started laughing. It was more of a cackle, and he knew that she was howling not because any of this was funny but because it was all so absurd. It was funny ha ha. Meaning not funny at all.

“I’m not really following,” Ezra said. Then: “Frankie, can you please just be quiet for once?”

And Frankie made a grimace at Joni, like she was a child who’d been reprimanded but had no intention of abiding the teacher. And Joni, who was only being a Good Samaritan, Ezra knew, looked a little alarmed at his tone.

“Should I tell you? I mean . . . I was just trying to help,” she said. “I can get back to work.”

“No, I’m sorry,” Ezra said because none of this was her fault. “What exactly happened?”

“Well, there was this grad student there. I’d totally spaced,” she said. “And obviously, you were hosing him. Like you were the rest of us. But at least that I could root for.” She lowered her voice. “I mean, you don’t understand. He was being such a dick.”

“Oh, been there, done that,” Frankie said.

“Anyway, he was out of cash, and well, to be honest, I think maybe he has a gambling problem? So he bet his wedding ring. And you looked skeptical because you didn’t really need it, but then Frankie—you were lying on the floor? Which, in hindsight, I guess is pretty weird? But you said something like, ‘Oh, take his ring, Ezra. Marriage is all a farce anyway.’ ” Joni’s face folded into confusion. “Wait, maybe I’m not remembering that right.”

“I’m sure you are,” Ezra said.

“I don’t mean to cause problems between you two!” Joni truly looked alarmed.

“Ship has sailed,” Frankie said, and Joni gave her a long stare, then another to Ezra, then back to Frankie.

“Anyway, I guess now that I’m saying this aloud, maybe it’s not really all that helpful?” Joni sighed. “I just, you know. As I said, you’re the best player I’ve ever seen, so I thought maybe—”

“So, this was essentially your fault.” Ezra glared at Frankie.

“My fault? My fault? I was half dead from a concussion—”

“You weren’t half dead or I would have taken you to the emergency room—”

“I was a quarter dead from a concussion, so how can this be my fault? It seems to me, Ezra Jones”—and at this Frankie raised a finger and jabbed his shoulder—“that you have only yourself to blame for your poker habit and, well, all the rest of it!”

Ezra didn’t know what all the rest of it meant, but then he remembered how not even a few minutes ago, he had considered agency in his life: how it was easier not to have it but more fulfilling when you did. Before he could reassess and put Frankie in her place, from behind him came another voice, shrill and cutting. He turned and there was Mimi. Another fatal mistake in his planning: Mimi was his plus-one. He shouldn’t have left her alone.