Mary and Isabel a sat on the porch, and Isabel a smoked a cigarette. “I thought you quit,” Mary said.

“I did,” Isabel a said. “This is an emergency.”

“I don’t real y miss smoking as much as I used to,” Mary said.

“You sound disappointed,” Isabel a said. Mary shrugged.

“Where’s your wine?” Isabel a asked her.

“Oh, I left it inside, I guess.”

“Are you pregnant?”

“What?”

“Oh, my God, you are! You’re pregnant, you fucker.”

“Most people say congratulations.”

“I can’t believe you’re pregnant!”

Mary smiled and looked embarrassed but pleased. “It’s real y early. I haven’t even told my mom. I’m like, three days pregnant.”

“Wow,” Isabel a said, “you’re going to have two kids. You’re going to have two kids before I’m married.”

“I wish you were pregnant too,” Mary said to her.

“So you would have someone to be sober with?”

Mary nodded. “Yeah. I’d be happy. If you got knocked up right now, I wouldn’t even feel bad. I’d just be happy for me.”

“You,” Isabel a said, “are a good friend.”

Mary laughed. “Don’t tel anyone, okay? It’s so early. Anything could happen.”

“Okay,” Isabel a said. “And I’l make you a deal. If you wait for me, I’l time my first pregnancy with your third. Then we can be pregnant together.

Deal?”

“Deal.”

They al woke up on Sunday morning with headaches. Mary had to take an early train and was gone by the time Isabel a got up. The house was a mess, and they al walked around in silence, throwing out cans and bottles. Lauren attempted to sweep the floor, but there was so much sand that she gave up after a few minutes.

Beth White came downstairs with her packed bag. Her hair was wet and slicked back in a ponytail. She looked young standing there, like a high school girl who’d just finished swim practice. Abby and Shannon stood a little behind her on either side, like they were her jailers or her bodyguards, ready to step in if needed. “I’m sorry,” Beth said. “I’m sorry I caused such a scene.”

“Don’t apologize,” they al said. “Don’t be sil y.”

Isabel a left to catch her train. “Fun weekend,” she said to Lauren.

“Yeah,” Lauren said. “That’s one word for it. What a way to celebrate our thirties.”

“Everyone says it’s the best decade,” Isabel a said.

“I know,” added Lauren. “But I think it’s just to make you feel better, like when people say it’s good luck that a bird poos on you, or it rains on your wedding day.”

“Maybe,” Isabel a said.

“Maybe not, though.”

“Yeah, maybe not.”

Isabel a fel asleep on the train ride back, and woke up cranky and thirsty as they pul ed into Penn Station. Everyone on the train jostled one another to get out first. Normal y, Isabel a elbowed her way out with the best of them, but now she just let everyone go past. She climbed up the steps to exit Penn Station, and then noticed that the man in front of her had stopped and was taking his pants off.

“Excuse me,” she said and ran past him.

The sun was bright as Isabel a waited for a taxi. She stood and watched al of the people returning to the city. They popped out of Penn Station, one by one, in their wrinkled clothes. Sunburned and sweaty, they raced to get cabs. Girls carried bright paisley-covered bags stuffed ful of wet bathing suits and sandy shirts, and walked quickly in their flip-flops as they typed on their cel phones. Everyone was tired from too much sun and too many drinks, and they al just wanted to get back to their apartments.

They were al scrambling, Isabel a thought. Scrambling, scrambling.

She got in a cab and rol ed down the window. Harrison sent her a message that he was making dinner. Harrison knew how to make exactly two things: Manwiches and fajitas. Her phone buzzed again and she looked down. “It’s fajitas,” Harrison wrote. Isabel a smiled.

The air blew through the window, and she watched al of the people moving like ants outside. She was happy to be sitting stil in a cab, happy to be on her way home. She imagined Harrison and Winston sitting on the couch waiting for her. The cab stopped at the corner of Fifty-ninth and Eighth, and she saw a man standing there wearing al white. He was a tiny man, with a perfectly round face. “Jesus is coming,” she heard him say, and she laughed out loud. The cabdriver looked at her in the rearview mirror. “I know him,” she said. It felt lucky to her. What were the odds? She couldn’t explain it, but she was so happy to see him. She smiled at the man and waved her hand out the window. He looked up and waved back to her as the cab pul ed away, and she leaned her head back and closed her eyes and let the breeze blow over her face.

O n their second date, Mark brought Lauren a goldfish, which made her nervous. Lauren knew that the normal life span of a goldfish was about five days, but growing up she’d had one that lived for five years. And so, it seemed a big commitment when Mark gave her the plastic bag with the fish in it.