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He trailed off. This time, I had the sense to wait and let him continue on his own.

When he did, he was no longer speaking through a clenched jaw. “It had been about two years, and we were getting into our late twenties. People were starting to prod about getting engaged and getting married. And I just…I freaked out.”

“At the thought of getting married?” I asked.

“No,” he said immediately, and now his eyes were large, honest. “Okay, maybe. Kind of. I imagined walking down the aisle with her, living together forever, having kids with her, waking up next to her every morning, and freaked out. Panicked. It made me feel like I wanted to crawl out of my skin.

“And again, it was nothing she did. Freya is great. Which was part of the problem. Every time I’d gone through a breakup before, I was either the one who got dumped or she’d cheated on me or something. I didn’t know how to break up with someone who was perfect, just who I maybe didn’t want to commit to in such a big way. And if I didn’t know how to do it, I definitely didn’t know how to explain it to all of my friends. I figured they’d see me as the bad guy. So I just…left.”

I blinked. “You just left? What, did you just get in your car and drive until you got tired?”

He scoffed at me like I was the one who’d made the more ridiculous statement. “Of course I didn’t just drive until I got tired. Abby, this is Manhattan. Nobody has a car.” He paused. “I took a train. I’d been up in the area for a hiking trip with the guys a couple years ago and really liked it, so figured, why not? I got a car once I was up there.”

We jumped nimbly out of the way of a kid barreling toward us on a bicycle, face full of panic. “So let me get this straight. You couldn’t handle the thought of a mature, adult conversation with your partner of two years, so instead you just ran away. I can’t believe you never even apologized to her. You really owe her one. A big one.”

“Wow, Abby,” Seth said, and this was it, this was going to be the explosion. Seth was going to say how dare I, as his fake girlfriend, question him like this, like I had any right to say such a thing.

But his shoulders sagged. “You know, you pretty much nailed it.”

And that made me feel a little sorry for saying it so harshly. Not enough to actually apologize, though. I mean, it wasn’t like I’d been wrong. So what the hell, I just barreled down, full steam ahead. “Do you think this might be a bit of a pattern?”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, instead of having a confrontation with your parents and telling them you’re happy and to leave you alone, you formulated this scheme to bring a Jewish fake girlfriend to get them off your back.”

“Oh,” Seth said slowly. “Oh, yeah. I see where you’re getting that impression.”

We walked side by side in silence for a little while. He might have been thinking over what I’d said, considering what it meant about him as a person and him as a partner and him as a son. Me? I was craning my neck over the chain-link fence to see all the dogs in the dog park. There were so many, and guess what? They were all cute. Not as cute as Seth’s friend’s corgi, but very few dogs could be that fluffy and have that round of a butt.

“You know,” Seth said, and I was about to tell him that yes, I knew his friend’s dog was so cute I was considering a kidnapping scheme, but of course he couldn’t read my mind. “I guess I’ve never been great with conflict. As a kid my mom always kind of took care of things for me. That’s not much of an excuse, but…”

“It’s a fine excuse,” I said, thinking of my own mom and dad. They were my excuse for so many of the things I’d chosen to do and be. Only…“How long, though, can you let it be one? You’re an adult now. It can’t explain everything about you forever.”

My stomach flipped unpleasantly, like when you’re making that first pancake and it oozes out the sides because it’s not fully cooked. Maybe I wasn’t just talking to Seth.

“Unless you want her to,” I said hastily. “I mean, it’s your life. Not really any of my business.”

“No, you’re right,” he said. “I mean, even last night, I didn’t really want to go out with the group, but they told me to go, so I went.”

“But you ended up having fun, right?”

“I did,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean it was a good thing that I just folded.”

“That’s true.” We were both quiet for a moment.

And then my phone trilled. I hadn’t realized I’d taken it off silent, but now we both looked down to where I was trying to fumble it out of my pocket. You’d think that, after years of living through brutally cold Northeast winters, I’d be better at maneuvering my fingers through gloves.

It had already rung for so long by the time I’d extricated it that I just answered it without even checking who it was. “Hello?”

“Abby, hello.” Lorna’s most businesslike tone rang out in my ear. “Is this a good time?”

“Um—”

“Good,” she said. “I wanted to check in and see how things were going in regard to the festival. Since you didn’t take any of my recommendations.”

It’s Lorna, I mouthed at Seth, grimacing as I tucked the phone into my shoulder. “It’s actually going really well,” I said. “I’m in New York City for a few days and have already found some vendors I definitely want to hire.”

I gave her a rundown of the people I’d decided on, plus some of the other booths I was considering, highlighting the places where I planned to stick to local vendors. Lorna was silent the whole time, which, not going to lie, made the hair rise a little bit on the back of my neck the way it did before a lightning storm.