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Patty took another bite.

My phone lay on the coffee table beside the cheese puffs. The screen lit briefly with a notification.

Missy: Just checking in again. I’d still love to see you. Owen has started smiling at the ceiling fan, so he’s currently very entertaining.

Patty glanced at the screen before I turned it facedown. “Who’s Missy again?”

“My cousin.”

“The one you never answer?”

Patty waited. I hated that she had learned silence could be used as a tool against me.

“It’s a long story. She got married,” I said. “Then she had a baby.”

“That’s it? That’s the entire crime?”

“I never said it was a crime.”

“You’re treating it as disqualifying conduct.”

“I’m not.”

“You haven’t answered her.”

“I answer sometimes.”

“How often?”

I considered lying but thought better of it. I’d been lying too much as it was. “Not enough.”

“Why?”

I picked at the edge of the cake carton. “I don’t know how to act around her anymore.”

Patty shifted toward me, drawing one leg beneath herself. “Explain.”

“Missy and I grew up together. We understood each other. We complained about our families, shared books, studied together, and knew every bad decision the other person had made since middle school. Then she got serious with Daniel, and suddenly she had this whole life that didn’t include me in the same way.”

“Did she stop including you?”

“No.”

“Did Daniel?”

“No. He’s nice.”

“Annoyingly nice?”

“Very.”

“That’s terrible.”

I smiled. “She got married, and everything changed. Her schedule changed. Her priorities changed. Then she got pregnant, and every conversation became about appointments, nausea, nursery furniture, feeding plans, and whether some brand of stroller folded easily.”

“You didn’t know how to participate.”

“I tried. I bought gifts. I went to the shower. I asked questions. But I always felt I was performing interest incorrectly.”