“I think so,” said Sherri. “I guess.” Rebecca pushed Sherri’s drink closer to her, in case she hadn’t seen the refill. “I really shouldn’t have another,” said Sherri. “I have to drive Katie home.”

“Let her sleep here,” said Rebecca. “And honestly you can too. We’ve got a guest room that nobody ever uses—it’s all made up.” She belched softly and added, “Whoops.” Then: “The guest room has really nice linens. It’s perennially made up with nice linens.” She hesitated. “Wait, does that mean it’s always made up? Or it’s made up once a year?”

Sherri appeared to consider this question seriously. She took a sip of her drink. “I think once a year would be annually made up,” she said finally. “But I don’t know for sure.” After a moment she said, “In our old house we had a really nice guest room. We hardly ever had guests, but I loved that room.”

Rebecca listened for a moment to the gurgling of the fountain, and something about the moment made her think of earlier friendships, high school and college friendships, when you exchanged confidences with ease, and intimacy was measured by depth rather than longevity.

“If you tell me the bad stuff about your marriage, I’ll tell you the bad stuff about mine,” she said. It must be past ten now, and High Street was quiet. This was an early town, even in summer; by ten o’clock the traffic was sparse, and most of the restaurants in town were finishing up for the night.

“But your marriage wasn’t unhappy,” said Sherri. “From everything you’ve said.”

“Not my marriage to St. Peter,” said Rebecca. “That marriage was happy.”

Sherri’s laugh was a genuine, unexpected sound, like the trill of a bird in the dark. She seemed like someone else entirely when she laughed. “Are you serious, did you really call him St. Peter?”

“Not out loud,” conceded Rebecca. “But in my head—sometimes, yes. He really was the definition of a good person. Kind and funny and thoughtful and sweet. Never in a bad mood. Everybody loved him. I mean it: everybody. Dogs and little kids at the grocery store and old people and people who worked for him and people he worked for.”

“Oh come on now,” said Sherri. “Never in a bad mood?”

“Never.”

“Everybody is in a bad mood sometimes. It’s human nature.”

“Not Peter.”

“I don’t believe you.”