You too! I’m actually at a coffee shop nearby now. Monkford Café? It’s right off Tompkins Square Park.
SOPHIE
STOP IT! I’m literally just one block over. Will be there in like 5 seconds!
Anne smiled as she slipped her phone in her bag. The fact that Sophie genuinely wanted to catch up felt like a lifeline she didn’t know she needed. Over the past few years, Anne had been so busy working to keep Kellynch alive, she hadn’t kept any friends close, even though she desperately wished she had. Now, if there was a possibility she could rekindle her friendship with Sophie, it felt almost unfair to deny herself a second chance at it.
A minute later, the bell above the cafe door rang out, and Anne looked up in time to see Sophie swing through it, her shock of pink hair almost glowing under the lights and her quilted coat a blur of color as she moved toward Anne’s table.
“I’m telling you, it’s kismet!” Sophie announced, leaning forward and enveloping Anne in another one of her signature hugs. “What are the odds that you’d be here at the exact same time I’m in the neighborhood!”
Anne considered pointing out that the odds were actually quite high, considering she lived just across the park, but instead she smiled.
“Do you live nearby, too?” she asked.
“No,” Sophie said with a rueful sigh. “Still out in Queens. But my floral shop is off Twelfth Street and First.”
A warm sense of pride grew in Anne’s chest. The first time she met Freddie’s family, she quickly learned that their mother Jean passed her green thumb down to both her children. Jean Wentworth had a vegetable and herb garden that had taken overtheir entire backyard. Freddie helped take care of it—in fact, ensuring the plants survived a particularly harsh winter was what drove him to create his hydroponics farm in their basement. Their father helped, too, thanks to his plumbing business and extensive knowledge about irrigation. But Sophie’s love had gone the other way. She loved flowers the way that Anne loved math: not for any utilitarian function, but because of the beauty in the details. They bonded over finding the mathematical Fibonacci sequence in dahlias and applying the golden ratio to bouquets. Sophie had voiced a dream of opening a shop in the city one day, too, and even though her fiancé, Jimmy, was supportive—he offered to manage the future shop’s finances—Anne had always worried about the lack of a concrete plan in place. It was a Wentworth family trait.
“That’s great, Sophie!” she said. “When did you open?”
Sophie let out a dry laugh. “Not open yet. The rate I’m going, I’m not sure I ever will be. I can create an amazing wedding bouquet, but apparently organizing invoices is my kryptonite.”
Anne’s smile faltered. “Isn’t Jimmy handling all of that?”
Her friend shrugged, pretending like the sudden flash of sadness in her eyes wasn’t there. “We broke up.”
The news was so shocking that Anne was struck dumb. Jimmy Bruno had been Sophie’s childhood sweetheart. He had been at the Wentworth house for every Sunday dinner. Anne had even attended their engagement party. “Oh, Sophie. When?”
“Six months ago,” Sophie replied. “But things hadn’t been good for a while. I stupidly thought the flower shop would help fix things. Jimmy had been there while I dreamed the whole thing up and he got a degree in business management, so it made sense that he would take over that side of things while I focused on the creative. But it just led to more fights until we were barely even speaking.”
“I’m so sorry,” Anne said, reaching across the table to squeeze her friend’s hands.
“It’s okay,” Sophie said with a sigh. “I’m just glad the whole thing is over. The divorce was awful, dividing everything up. I had to move back in with my parents, but I got the shop, which is great. Or at least I thought it was great. We’re supposed to open next month, and I have no idea how to actually run it.”
The waiter appeared beside their table to take their order—an oat milk matcha flat white for Sophie and another skim latte for Anne. When he left, Sophie leaned both elbows on the table and smiled.
“Enough about me. What about you?” she asked. “The last I heard you got into Columbia Business School. What are you doing now? I always pictured you running a hedge fund and breaking men’s balls for a living. And, honestly, if that’s what you’re doing, I’m so jealous.”
Anne nearly laughed. It was almost funny hearing the impression she had left on Sophie eight years ago. She might not have known what the hell she was doing with her life, but at least she had looked like she did. It was a mantle Anne was still carrying.
“I tried the finance thing for a while, but it wasn’t for me. Then my dad’s TV production company ran into some budgeting issues, so I took over the finances for a while.”
“How long is a while?”
“Five years.” The words came out so quickly that it was only when Anne heard them aloud that she processed them. Had it really been five years? How depressing.
Sophie watched her expression as the realization struck. “It’s crazy how fast the time goes, huh?”
Anne let out a long breath. “Yeah.”
The waiter returned with their drinks, and the conversationmoved on. But no matter what topic came up, there seemed to be an unspoken understanding that Freddie would not be one of them. Anne was relieved, even as the temptation to ask about him grew.
The bill finally came, and they split it, still talking as they gathered their things and started toward the door.
“What are you doing for the rest of the day?” Sophie asked as they walked out onto the sidewalk.
“I have to finish going over some production documents for a friend,” she said, working to not roll her eyes as she buttoned her peacoat to ward off the new chill in the air. “Then I promised to help my roommate hang up some posters for her play. What about you?”
