No version where the past few days had meant less because I had handled them badly.
I reached toward her.
Then stopped before touching her hand.
Ellie noticed.
After a moment, she turned her palm upward.
I placed my fingers against hers.
We did not hold hands exactly.
We remembered how.
“I’m angry,” she said.
“You should be.”
“I don’t know when that changes.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t want Sophie turning me into a friend, a dive instructor who happened to be nearby, or a misunderstanding.”
“She won’t.”
Rachel cleared her throat.
“She won’t,” she confirmed. “No statement about Ellie without Ellie’s approval.”
I looked at her.
“Nothing about us at all.”
“Understood.”
“No invented explanation.”
“I said understood.”
“No—”
“Annie,” Rachel said. “I am capable of taking notes.”
Ellie’s fingers moved slightly against mine.
“You’re Annie again.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
“Rachel called you Annie.”
“She does sometimes.”
“When?”
