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given them short intense embraces. But each time love pulled away much too soon and fled or turned into a lumpy pumpkin at some unexpected or undeserved midnight. So as both women grew older, Jane and Felice became more resigned and self-sufficient. They welcomed romance whenever it appeared at their doors, but in the long stretches without it they worked hard to fill their days with engaging people and activities that made them feel pretty good most of the time.
    In the beginning of their relationship, both women proceeded as if they had entered a very dark room and were sliding their hands hesitantly up and down all the walls, feeling for a light switch while at the same time afraid they might touch something sharp or dangerous. But from the minute they met there was absolutely no game playing between them. Both had had more than enough of it in their lives. They were eager to get to the heart of this matter. They wanted to reach the point as soon as possible where sharing silence was just as good as sharing their life stories.
    They were both neat. They both wanted to laugh often. One of them liked sex more than the other but they worked it out. All in all, the ease with which they fit into each other’s lives made them both skeptical. It doesn’t happen this way; it’s never this easy . Where were the difficulties? One night soon after they had moved in together while eating large bowls of ramen soup Jane had microwaved for them, she put down her spoon and said out of the blue, “Maybe it just is and I’m not going to worry about it anymore, you know? Maybe we’re just lucky this time. Maybe there really is such a thing as luck. I never believed it before, but maybe there is.”
    “What are you talking about, dear?”
    “ Us . You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
    Felice grinned and whizzed her spoon around in her soup.
    Months later sitting together in the shopping mall, Jane said incomprehensibly through a mouthful of blueberry muffin, “Maybe it was the secret and the monster.”
    Felice reached over and breaking off a piece of the muffin popped it into her mouth. “ What did you say?”
    Jane felt like a kid stuffing her mouth and then trying to talk through it. She swallowed, sipped some coffee, and repeated, “Maybe it was the secret and the monster that broke them up.”
    “It’s possible; or else just one or the other. Usually one of them is ugly enough to do it for most couples.” Felice believed you could never really know a person until you’d learned at least one of their deepest secrets, and seen the monster we keep hidden within and only allow to surface when we’re truly out of control, or trust someone enough to feel we can let our guard down around them and allow our honest emotion to show.
    “You’ve never told me any of your secrets, do you realize that?”
    Jane stopped chewing.… Looking at Felice, she pointed to her mouth as if to say, let me finish this first and then I’ll respond.
    Felice continued. “It’s true though, Jane. I told you about me and the guy at the gas station when I was fourteen, but you’ve never told me even one of your secrets.”
    Jane swallowed and brushed crumbs off her hands. “I know who we were.”
    Felice waited for her to say more, then shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
    “I know who we both were in our last lives.”
    Whatever Felice had been expecting to hear, it certainly wasn’t this . “What do you mean?”
    “Don’t you have to get back to work? We can talk about it later.”
    Felice shook her head. “Harry Potter can wait five more minutes. Explain please.”
    Jane turned the cardboard coffee cup around and around in her hands. “I told you; I know who we were in our last lives. Whenever I meet somebody, I can see it immediately. It’s always been like that, ever since I was a little girl.”
    “All right then, who were you? Who was I?” Despite being skeptical about the subject, Felice