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you?”
    She took a closer look at him and realized he did look kind of familiar. He was tall, with blond hair and very blue eyes. She wondered if she knew him from college. He seemed several years older than her, maybe twenty-seven or twenty-eight, but maybe he’d been a grad student or an assistant professor or something.
    “Did you go to Wesleyan?” she asked.
    “Nope.”
    She racked her brain, but couldn’t come up with another guess.
    “Come on, I know you didn’t forget me.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Okay, I’ll give you a clue…Bev’s.”
    Bev’s was the ice-cream parlor in Lenox, Massachusetts, where Katie had hung out a lot when she was a teenager. She squinted at the guy for a few more seconds, still lost, then it clicked.
    “Oh my God, Peter. Peter Wells!”
    “You got it.”
    “Oh my God, I can’t believe this. What’re you
doing
here?”
    “I work here.”
    She noticed he was really cute, had dimples. “No way!”
    “I just started today.”
    “This is
so
funny.”
    “I know—I can’t believe it either. When I saw you walk in here, I was shocked.”
    “I live right down the street.”
    “Really?”
    “Where do you live?”
    “I just relocated to Manhattan,” Peter said. “I’m staying downtown right now.”
    “Wow. This is so unbelievable.”
    “I know.”
    “I mean, when you said Bev’s, I looked at you and I thought, Who is this guy? And then I thought, Wait, that’s Peter Wells. I can’t believe I didn’t recognize you right away. You look so different.”
    “Really? How’s that?”
    She wanted to say that he was much better-looking than she remembered, but she said, “I don’t know. Maybe it’s just your hair or something.”
    “Yeah, I finally got rid of the bangs…But I recognized you right away.”
    “But I was, what, thirteen the last time you saw me?”
    “Yeah, but you’re just as pretty.”
    “Thanks.” She hoped she wasn’t blushing.
    “God, I remember all those conversations we used to have.”
    “You do?”
    “Of course. I always got a big kick out of talking to you…So how’s everything else? How’s your sister?”
    The muscles in Katie’s face tensed and Peter must have noticed.
    “I guess you didn’t hear,” she said.
    “Hear what?”
    “Heather died.”
    “Oh, God. When?”
    “She committed suicide in college…at UMass.”
    “What?
Jesus, I had no idea…God, that’s so awful.”
    “I know.”
    “Oh, wow, I’m so sorry. I just can’t believe that. Shit.”
    “I know. It’s still, like, really weird for me when I think about it.”
    A girl came over and asked Peter for a towel. He gave her one, then said to Katie, “I’m really sorry about Heather. I haven’t been in touch with anyone from Lenox since my family moved…Wow, suicide. I’m still shocked.”
    Starting to feel sad and wanting to change the subject, Katie said, “But it’s really great seeing you again. It’s a total blast from the past.”
    “Isn’t it? So when did you move to the city?”
    “Like five months ago, after graduation.”
    “Like it?”
    “Yeah. I mean, it takes some getting used to, you know, but it’s great.”
    “Where you working?”
    “This financial PR firm in midtown.”
    “Really? That’s great.”
    “It’s not very exciting. I might go back to school, I’m not sure yet. I might be taking the GREs in the spring. What about you? I mean, is this your, like, permanent job?”
    “No. Actually, I’m going to be a physical trainer.”
    “That’s cool.” Katie remembered Andy saying “That’s cool” so many times this morning and how annoying it had been. “I mean, that’s great.”
    A couple of gym members were standing near the desk, waiting to get Peter’s attention, so Katie said, “I’ll talk to you later.”
    “Yeah, definitely. And, hey, we should really hang out sometime.”
    “Yeah, that sounds great. Let’s definitely exchange numbers before I go.”
    “Terrific.”
    Peter smiled and Katie noticed his