“I’d heard, yes.”

“It was because of that. Those first few months they were together, Stuart kept saying how much he missed New York and how much he was looking forward to moving home when his residency was over. It was New York this and New York that every time you saw him. Jai sort of went along with it for a while, but then, when they started getting serious last summer, spending like every second together, Jai started calling him on it. They fought about it a lot and broke up a couple of days before he left for a trip. With you, I think.”

“Yes. We met up in California.”

She thought back to that trip, remembering it differently now in hindsight. At the time, he’d seemed like his old self. Bitter, cynical. He drank a lot that weekend, but they always had when they were together. He’d been interested, as always, in happenings and gossip in New York, and, except for that one conversation when he’d mentioned Jai, he hadn’t spoken a bit about his life in Colorado the whole weekend.

“So what changed, do you think?” Ryann asked.

“Isn’t it obvious? Stuart stopped being stupid—that’s what.”

She laughed. “I guess that’s true. Took him a little while, though, right?”

“Yes. He didn’t come crawling back, quite literally, until October. Me and Julia were there when it happened, actually, over at Verboten—the brewery? Anyway. He and Jai arranged to see each other—well, Stuart called him like a thousand times that week before Jai caved. Me and Julia were there for like moral support, kind of hiding and waiting in a back booth, just in case. Stuart came inside, got down on his knees in front of Jai, and burst into tears. It was a real scene. By the end, people in there were clapping and crying, like us, when they kissed and made up.”