“Joey worked really freaking hard as a lawyer. She’d come home for the High Holidays, and it would just seem like all her energy was snuffed out.” Lily shifted her weight so her right hip bone jutted alluringly through her dress. “I knew she wasn’t happy. Mom always said Joey was a really talented artist. There was this one painting she did. I found it in Jo’s closet at home. It was this face with these mesmerizing eyes. It wasn’t finished.”

Joey’s heart went from producing unexpectedly warm feelings toward both her sister and Bea, to positively arrested.

“It was just true. It was this really true painting. And I was really proud of her when she left law to pursue her art. Jo, I don’t know if you remember, but we talked on the phone before you went to Bali. I asked if you were scared. You said, I spent the last ten years being bored. I’m excited to be scared about something. And you know what? That’s when I decided to start my YouTube channel! You may remember, my Instagram was really successful at that point, but I wasn’t sure about the video component. It seemed so, like, in your face…”

As Lily went on, Joey froze. She watched the Leo back turning. The Leo back rising. The Leo back becoming not a back anymore, but a front.

They locked eyes. Joey stood cemented in place on tracks as the train chugged closer. Leo broke into a smile. He began to walk over.

Now Lily was saying, “And Joey wasn’t sure about YouTube, but she’s, like, Gen X.”

“Elder millennial,” Siya corrected loudly.

“Well, I’m Gen Z, and we are all about YouTube…”

Leo was almost at the door. Joey waved her hands a couple times and then realized her lack of subtlety and attempted headshakes to convey the urgency of the situation. Leo glanced behind him. He turned back, his face confused.

“Joey, who are you waving at?” asked Bea.

Like synchronized swimmers, heads went to the door.

Joey steeled her hands against the table edge. Leo stood in the frame, smack beneath the SAME BACK FOREVER sign.

“Hey, Jonesey.” Those green eyes wandered. They registered Bea. The eyes flickered with shock.

Then, for what seemed like forever, his eyes locked onto Lily.

Chapter Thirty

Joey

Florida
2019

Bea spoke first, in a falsetto. “Leo! Leo Winn. Joey, did you know Leo was here?”

“Leo? You’re the Leo?” said Lily.

“That’s the boy from Corfu?” said G. “The one who wasn’t Jewish? What’s he doing here?”

“Joey’s Leo?” said Siya. “That’s your Leo, Jo?”

Leo walked in. Slowly, Joey said, “Everyone meet Leo. Mom, you remember him, clearly. Leo’s in town for the wedding.”

“I’m in town for the wedding,” repeated Leo, his eyes fixed on Lily.