“Just consider it,” said Sherri. It felt really good to step outside of her own problems and into somebody else’s for a moment, or an afternoon; it felt more than good to consider the possibility that she might be helpful. “Think about it,” she continued. “And if you need to talk more about it, you know I’m here.” She picked up her sangrita and went to town on it.

“Two more,” she told the pretty, tan waitress. “One for me, and one for my friend here.”

48.

The Squad

What we heard about the Tyler/Alexa breakup was this. We heard that immediately when Tyler got back from Silver Lake toward the end of July he stopped by the Cottage during one of Alexa’s shifts. She refused to talk to him while she was working.

One of us had gone to get a Ringer one evening after dinner and witnessed the whole thing. We won’t say who it was, and also we would never say that the person in question should not have been consuming a Ringer, claiming as she did to be lacto-intolerant and eating low-carb. That is not our place.

The person in the Cottage bought her Ringer, walked up to the beach and back again, and upon returning to her car saw Alexa and Tyler arguing near Alexa’s Jeep.

Tyler accused Alexa of ghosting him the whole time he was in Silver Lake, and Alexa shot back that one look at @silvergurl’s Instagram told her that it didn’t look like Tyler was thinking too much about Alexa.

Alexa then asked Tyler what was the point of continuing their relationship anyway, since he’d be headed to UMass in the fall and she’d be long gone herself. (Alexa was going to Colby, according to Rebecca, but some of us who had watched her video on understanding current market conditions swore that she’d mentioned something about moving to L.A.)

“So you’re just, like, giving up on us?” Tyler asked, perplexed. “That’s it?”

“That’s it,” said Alexa. Cucumber cool, according to our source.

We heard that Tyler was insanely angry and that he shouted, “You’re going to regret this, Alexa Thornhill! For as long as you live you’re going to regret this!”

The person in question waited in the shadows at that point, in case Alexa needed help. Because Tyler was known to have a temper.

Alexa said, “I doubt it,” and drove away in her Jeep. Tyler ran after the Jeep, but he didn’t get very far, because lacrosse season had ended some time ago, and he wasn’t in shape.

Okay, it was Gina, all right? If you must know. It was Gina who heard and reported on the whole thing. But please don’t tell anybody that we told you that. We promised we’d keep it to ourselves.