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“Yes, him. And maybe you’ll find a distraction, too.” Mary bats her eyelashes.

“Fine, but I’m leaving as soon as you track him down.”

“Good enough.” She throws the pillow to the bed and props her head on it. “So, your thoughts on this place?” Mary gestures at my sparse room, empty except for a mattress, a mirror, a closet, and a few boxes in the corner.

“It’s perfect.” And it is, despite the emptiness.

High ceilings, enormous windows that let in streams of light, and an openness that makes the space feel airy and bright. This apartment is a blank canvas, waiting for us to make it home. We’ll just need the right furniture to go with.

I grab my purse. “Let’s go.”

“First breakfast. You need to tell me how the meeting with Oliver went.”

After having breakfast and updating Mary on my divorce, we step out of the apartment complex into the bustle of the city. Exhaust fumes mingle with food from street carts; indistinct voices blend into an ever-present hum, so different from the sterile suburbs I’d lived in not so long ago.

“So, any ideas?” Mary asks as we walk down the sidewalk. “Theme, color scheme, style?”

“Something simple and cozy. Nothing too frilly.”

“A sort of minimalist boho chic. I like it. Lil will like it, too.” She pauses, eyeing a furniture store up ahead. “How about there?”

“Sure.” I follow her lead, stepping into the store. Couches and chairs in muted grays, creams, and wood tones fill the space, simple yet striking. Yes, this is what I had in mind.

We spend the next few hours browsing stores and ordering furniture and decorations. After that, we settle into the plush booth of our favorite gelato place.

Mary leans forward. “I cannot wait for both of you to move here. I hope Lil will love it. It’s her first time here, after all.”

I smile, imagining Lil’s face lighting up as she enters our new apartment. “Do you remember when we first met her? Freshman year?”

Mary’s eyes grow distant. “God, it seems so long ago now. I remember she always used to sit alone in the library, and I had this one economics class with her. But if you hadn’t introduced us, we would have never even talked with each other.”

The server approaches us, pad in hand. “What can I get you?”

“Double scoop of pistachio,” Mary says without hesitation.

“And I’ll have a scoop of dark chocolate and one of salted caramel, please.” I lay down the menu.

The server nods and disappears behind the counter.

Thinking back, I still remember Lil clearly. How desperate she sounded, hammering against the door. How she stared at me when I opened that door. Lil’s pale face and her slender fingers were smeared with blood from a cut. “Her hand was bleeding the first time I met her.”

“What? You never told me that.”

The server returns with our gelato—vibrant green pistachio for Mary and my own swirls of rich brown and creamy beige. We thank him and dig in.

“It was in the back room. The one I got locked in so many times already,” I say between spoonfuls. “But she downplayed it so much.”

Mary shakes her head. “That’s Lil.”

“I’m glad I didn’t listen when she told me it’s nothing. If I hadn’t been so pushy, who knows if we’d all be friends today?”

“I wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t crashed her wedding.”

Exhausted and back home, a vision of what this place could become forms as we return to the apartment.

“Movie night?” Mary takes off her shoes.

“Yes, please,” I take out a vase we bought from the shopping bags and place it on the kitchen counter.

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