While she’d watched, she’d eaten Cinnamon Toast Crunch from the sole bowl she owned, that received the tiniest rinse between cereal meals, meaning the same crusted-up pieces adhered eternally to its sides. She’d dyed her hair dark then, an almost blue-black that in hindsight only served to enhance her deepening under-eye circles. In the throes of her Dark Ages, Joey had hardly ever answered her phone. She’d certainly not gotten beneath anyone to get over Leo, as her girlfriends had advocated. She’d basically only left the apartment to go to an occasional class or to the supermarket, to stock up on her three essentials: cereal, milk, and cookie dough.

The memory vacuumed up Joey’s breath. “I can’t stay long, G, so let me help you with your mouse.”

G frowned. “My mouse?”

“The clickey thingie. It’s called a mouse. Remember?”

“I thought it was a moose.”

“It’s a mouse.”

G pulled out her phone in its pink glitter case and jabbed at her screen. “I’ll make a note of that. Okay, darling, let me just dash to the bathroom, and then you’ll help me find that mouse. Maybe the darn thing will answer to cheese. I have cheddar.”

As G laughed her melodious laugh and slipped into the powder room, Joey’s heart thumped in unison with the tock from the grandfather clock.

I need to see you, Jonesey.

That’s not a good idea, Leo. I’m getting married in twelve days.

What he’d responded kept cycling around her head.

I know. That’s why I’m coming. Please, Jonesey, you need to hear this. I have to tell you why I really broke up with you.

Taverna Salto. Leo’s eyes shading over, like he’d seen something. But what? For years, Joey had relived the way he’d pulled her from the taverna, analyzing it so exhaustively that the CIA would have been impressed. She’d conjured secret lovers and fanciful conspiracies before shifting focus to herself, trying to figure out which part or parts of her hadn’t been good enough to make Leo stay with her. Finally, Joey’s best friend of twenty years, Siya, who’d occupied a front-row seat to Joey’s breakdown, laid down some harsh truth. Jo, you need to let go of the restaurant. Leo’s a textbook commitment-phobe, and you deserve someone who sees your amazingness.

Joey considered spilling all to Siya as soon as she left G’s. But Siya had married her first boyfriend, whom she’d met at age thirteen. She’d never so much as poked a toe into twenty-first-century dating. And she adored Joey’s fiancé; Siya had captained Team Grant from the start. Bottom line: If Joey were to call her best friend like she now longed to, there was little chance Siya would say, Sure, meet Leo, it will be harmless closure.