I shrugged. “There’s not much to say. Daniel was perfect and so I broke up with him.” I gave her a considering look. “You don’t seem surprised.”

Mona shook her head. “I’m only curious why it took so long.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

It came out more snippy than I’d meant it to, but she’d caught me by surprise.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “That was rude of me.”

“No, it was rude of me.”

She smiled and offered her glass to me.

“To us, in our rudeness,” she said.

I clinked my glass against hers again and we had another sip.

“But what did you mean?” I asked.

“I don’t know. It’s just . . . you know when you see a couple and they’re so obviously right for each other?”

I nodded.

“Well, I didn’t get that from you and Daniel. I mean, you’re right. He is perfect. Handsome and kind and generous. But it always seemed to me that whatever light he had was reflected from what you cast.”

All I could do was look at her.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s just . . .”

Her voice trailed off as I shook my head.

“God, what are you?” I asked. “Psychic? That’s exactly how I felt. Well, I don’t mean the light business, but it’s just . . . whatever music we listened to, it was what I was into. I chose the movies we watched. He only read books by authors I’d recommended to him. He never seemed to offer me anything of himself. He never even really talked about himself.”

“For . . . what’s it been? Two years?”

I had another sip of my wine, then tapped the arm of my wheelchair. “Well, I’ve been kind of distracted.”

“Okay, but that’s still weird,” Mona said. “I mean, how could you, of all people, let that go on for so long?”

“I don’t know. I just did. And then, when I started to think about it, I got lazy. It was less complicated to just go with the flow. I mean, dealing with all that I’ve had to, it was . . . just easier having this one nice thing to look forward to, even though it felt sort of hollow.”

Mona nodded sympathetically. “I know what you mean. I’ve stayed in relationships that weren’t bad, but they weren’t particularly good either. They just were, and they kind of wear you down so you don’t really have the energy to deal with them the way you know you should.”

“I thought you’d think I was crazy to break up with him.”

“Nope. I don’t think anybody will.”

“Oh, god. Did everybody feel the same way?”

“It’s not like what you think,” she said. “We were happy if you were happy. But we couldn’t help but think you’d need more intellectual stimulation than it seemed you were getting.”