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anywhere.”
    Looking beyond Mark, Karen noticed Deb’s SUV approaching—Deb was driving with Justin in the back seat. Karen smiled at Deb and then waved as the car passed, but Deb returned her gaze, stone-faced. Now Karen was certain last night hadn’t been her imagination—something was going on.
    “Deb’s not angry at me , is she?” Karen asked.
    “Who?” Mark said.
    “Deb,” Karen said. “Your wife.”
    “Oh. Why would she be angry?”
    “I don’t know. But last night she barely looked at me and now she just gave me the evil eye. I don’t know what I did to piss her off, but I must’ve done something.”
    “Yeah, I know, she’s been that way with everybody lately,” Mark said. “She’s moody all the time.”
    “I don’t know, she didn’t seem to be treating anybody else like that,” Karen said.
    “I’m telling you,” Mark said. “It’s her own personal shit. Has nothing to do with you.”
    Karen stared at Mark—she knew him well and got the sense he was hiding something. She stretched her other calf, feeling a nice pull. “Well, if it doesn’t have to do with me, maybe it has to do with you.”
    “Me?” Mark said. “Why—”
    “Is something going on with you two?”
    One of the best things about her friendship with Mark was that she was able to speak openly with him, say whatever was on her mind. She hadn’t been able to do that in her marriage.
    “Just the usual bickering,” he said.
    “Bickering or fighting?”
    “Okay, fighting.” He took a breath. “It got pretty bad in the car.”
    “She said something about me?”
    “No, no, not about you—seriously, this has nothing to do with you. But you saw her drinking last night at the party, right? In the car, she was really drunk, and she started saying all this crazy shit, complaining, yelling at me, and then she threatened me. She said if things didn’t change she’d leave me.”
    “Oh no.” Karen felt bad, but she didn’t want to say I’m sorry , knowing how annoying and cliché it was to hear I’m sorry from her friends when she was contemplating getting divorced—she didn’t need sympathy, she needed support. So she hugged Mark tightly and said, “Ugh. Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”
    “Yeah,” Mark said. “I know it will.”
    Karen pulled back and said, “It was wrong of her to say that to you, though. She shouldn’t just be throwing around the D word so casually. Joe used to do that, and it has an effect after awhile, it starts to wear a relationship down.”
    “Yeah, I know, you’re probably right.”
    “You have to work on it with her. Maybe go to counseling, and you have to get her to stop drinking, maybe even get her into A.A.”
    “Her drinking’s not that bad,” Mark said.
    Karen glared.
    “It isn’t,” Mark said. “I mean, it’s not like she gets drunk all the time.”
    “She has a problem,” Karen said. “Every time I see her at a party she’s drunk. And I’ve seen her drunk at the country club, in the middle of the afternoon.”
    “A lot of people drink at the club,” Mark said.
    “Look, I’m just trying to help you,” Karen said. “I think you’re in a little denial about it, but that’s okay. I just think you should confront it, for the sake of your kids and for the sake of your marriage. But that’s the end of my speech, I won’t tell you what to do.”
    “Thank you, I appreciate all your help, I really do,” Mark said. “I guess I’ll have to think about how to handle it. Ready to roll?”
    While Karen still wished she could run alone, she knew Mark was in a bad way about whatever was going on with Deb, and could probably use the company.
    “Yeah, let’s do it,” she said.
    They went along Karen’s usual route—to the end of Savage Lane, then up the road a bit to the path around Truesdale Lake. They were having a nice chat, mainly small talk about the Lerners’ party. Karen was convinced that Michelle Lerner had gotten more plastic surgery, and they had