“I think he’s having trouble sleeping again. Edward has terrible insomnia,” Gemma explains to me. “He used to take Ambien, but at some point it just stopped working. I think he did too much blow in his twenties. So now he’s like a vampire.”

“You two are close, huh?” I ask.

“Oh, Edward? Yes, he’s like a brother. But nothing like my actual brother, who’s a bit of a shit, if I’m being honest. To say nothing of my sister, who isn’t even speaking to me at the moment. I know it’s odd to have a man as such a close mate, but Edward’s just always been in my life. People never believe me that there was never anything romantic between us.”

I nod. “My best friend back home, well, both of my best friends, were guys. Brothers, actually, we practically grew up together.” I can scarcely remember my life without them, and now I have no idea how to have them in it anymore.

“Your ex didn’t mind you being so close with them?” Gemma asks. “I’ve had some boyfriends who did not fancy my being so close with Edward.”

“Well, the ex is . . . was . . . the oldest friend.”

“Damn,” Cali says, “that’s brutal.

“That’s heartbreaking! Is there any hope of you being friends again?”

“We tried, but . . .” I trail off; there’s far too much to explain. Luke and I might have survived our failed romance, but not the way it failed. I never felt the loss of myself more keenly than I did when I was with him. And I knew he couldn’t bear to watch me fall apart, to watch me unbecome myself. He pulled away slowly, incrementally, breaking my already shattered heart a little bit at a time until I couldn’t bear it and made him end things. I could feel his revulsion at the tragedy and chaos that descended on me, as though what had happened to me might be contagious. He loved who I’d been before, not this sad, needy doppelgänger who’d taken her place.

“This is why Edward and I could never go there. Who would I run to with my boy troubles? Not to mention that I would crush him beneath my Amazonian heft! Besides, I believe in being friends with exes, but he does not. He moves thousands of miles away so he doesn’t have to run into them.”

“Every time?” Cali says wryly. “That seems unmanageable.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch for Gianluca and see him standing under one of the giant jacaranda trees with Angelina. Her face is tense and he appears to be placating her. My heart sinks a little with the certainty they’re a couple.