“AND THEN I PRESSED ‘Post advertisement’ and the deed was done,” Charlie told Simon, Liv and Gibbs. She decided not to mention that so far she’d had not one single reply that wasn’t spam of one kind or another.

Simon, who had heard the story already, was furious. “You’re telling more people?” he said. “Do you want to get sacked?”

“Liv and Gibbs won’t say anything, will they? Morally compromised as they are. As we all are.”

The four of them were having dinner at Passaparola. These days, Charlie and Simon had dinner with Liv and Gibbs more often than with Liv and Dom. Charlie had never been keen on her official brother-in-law, and increasingly Dom, a lawyer with a thick skin and a high opinion of himself, seemed to need to be the center of attention. He’d taken to prefacing nearly all of his I-know-better pronouncements with the words “Here’s the thing,” followed by an audible colon.

“For once, nothing’s leaked out to the press,” said Simon. “Nothing—and you go and do this.”

“And still nothing’s been leaked to the press,” said Charlie. “So. Relax.”

Liv clinked her fork against her glass. “Chris and I have something important to tell you,” she said.

Charlie held her breath.

“Now, please don’t be sad for us because we’re absolutely fine. OK? We’ve decided that from now on, we’re going to proceed on a new basis: just very good friends. Best friends!” She beamed. “It won’t change anything as far as you’re concerned. We can still all meet for dinner. But . . . we’ve decided not to continue with the romantic side of our relationship.”

“You’re splitting up?” Charlie had dreamed of this day for years. Now that it had come, she felt oddly deflated. But . . . Gibbs had been sucking up to her like mad, and Simon had said he’d been the same with him. Charlie had been sure a large favor was about to be asked of them. Why would you butter people up in order to tell them your relationship was over? It made no sense.

“We’re no longer an item in that sense, no, but we’ll still see each other just as often,” said Liv. “Won’t we, Chris?”

Gibbs sighed. “If you say so,” he muttered. Charlie turned her attention to him, away from her sister. He looked embarrassed and slightly impatient. Not distraught, not in shock . . . Charlie glanced at Simon, who shook his head almost imperceptibly to let her know he agreed with her: something here didn’t add up.

Whatever they were playing at, it was Liv’s idea, Liv’s crazy plan, and Gibbs was going along with it.

“Why are you going to see each other just as often?” Charlie asked. “Isn’t the one advantage of a breakup that you can finally be rid of the person?”