“I do,” she says. “I’m going to the beach tomorrow with some friends, but talk next week?”

“No problem,” I tell her. “Love you.”

“Love you more,” she says, hanging up before I can argue.

When I pass the taffy-green fairy-tale cottage, the morning glories vining around the picket fence are in full bloom, little birds cheeping from the branches like one more good omen.

On a whim, I check the online listing. The price has recently dropped fifty thousand dollars, but it’s still well beyond my real-life range. Still, it feels good to daydream.

To picture myself in a place like that. Hosting dinners and watching action movies. Grabbing chai from the café up the street and filling vases with fresh-cut lavender. Drinking wine out back with friends during lightning bug season.

I can almost see it. I can almost see a life here.

“Any big plans for your birthday?” Harvey asks Ashleigh as we settle around the poker table several hours later with the others.

“It’s your birthday?” I say. “When?”

She groans. “A week from Saturday. Forty-three. And no to big plans. It just so happens to fall on the weekend Mulder and I get back from visiting my mom in Sedona, so he’ll be at his dad’s place, and I’ll be at home rotting my brain to the tune of Bravo reality TV.”

“Why would you be home?” I say. “We should do something.”

Around her cigar, Lenore says, “You’re not gonna win this battle.”

“I’ve always hated my birthday,” Ashleigh explains. “It’s just one more reminder of how little progress I’ve made. I’m in exactly the same spot I was this time last year. Looking at the same four walls in the same house in the same town, only minus a husband.”

“Oh, sweetie, that’s not true at all!” Barb pipes in. “You left a stagnant marriage. You started therapy. You got Mulder through a tough year, and now you’ve brought Daphne into our little circle!”

“And it’s not a day to celebrate progress, anyway,” I insist. “It’s a day to celebrate existence. We have to do something.”

“Aren’t the roles a bit reversed here?” Her brow arches. “I’m the fun, take-charge one.”

“You are,” I agree. “But you can’t Ashleigh yourself, so someone else has to.”

“I don’t want to go out.” She sticks out her bottom lip.

“Then we won’t go out,” I relent. “What if I come over and we paint?”

Her face scrunches, an expression akin to disgust. “Like Bob Ross landscapes?”

“Like a room,” I say. “In your house. You said Duke never wanted you to, right? And you’re tired of looking at the same four walls. So pick a wall color, and I’ll come help paint.”

“I’m terrible at painting,” she says. “I get too impatient and fuck up the ‘cut-in.’ ”

“Well, you’re in luck, because I’m amazing at the cut-in,” I say.

She snorts. “You would be.”

“I’m not insulted by that,” I tell her.

She considers for a beat. “So you’ll come do all the hard parts, and I’ll pour the wine, while we watch the housewives throw drinks and scream ‘just own it’ at each other?”

“Sure,” I say. “Anyone else want in?”

Lenore guffaws. “I’m good, but you girls enjoy yourselves.” Harvey and Barb nod agreement.

“Okay, Vincent,” Ashleigh says after a moment of consideration. “Saturday night after next. I’ll pick a color. You wear your adorable friendship-montage overalls.”

“I don’t have those,” I say.

“Well, you’ve got all week.”

“I know a great farm supply store,” Barb offers helpfully.

“Now, can we please get to the cards?” Harvey says. “I’m feeling lucky tonight.”

And he is pretty lucky that night. He wins six hands.

I win the game.

We get rained out on Sunday. Miles didn’t tell us what we were supposed to do, only that it requires good weather. “Think you could call off on Thursday?” he asks me as we’re making our respective tea and coffee in the kitchen. Ordinarily, I’d hate to call off, but with Ashleigh out all week, work’s been a little boring, and there isn’t much on the library’s calendar that day, so I give in.

I still wake up at seven, even without an alarm, and decide to ease into my day reading and sipping iced tea at one of Fika’s sidewalk tables. On a whim, I order matcha and like it more than I expected, but still decide to go back in for my usual before walking home.

The thoroughly facial-pierced barista looks up and calls brightly, “You’re back!”

“I am,” I say.

“Another matcha?” he says. “Or iced chai with milk?”

“Chai, please,” I say. “Plus an iced miel, and an iced hazelnut latte.”

“Big day?” he teases.

“For my roommates,” I say.

“Got it.” He’s scribbling my name on all three cups, without asking for it. I feel an embarrassing amount of pride at having become a regular someplace new, on my own.

“How much do I owe you?” I ask when he brings the finished drinks to me.

“On the house today,” he says.

“What? Are you sure?” I ask.

He looks around, then leans in. “My manager isn’t here, there’s no one in line behind you to demand their own free drinks, and you’re a good tipper. I’m sure.”