She’d received a small raise for her museum class. The job meant little to her, and because of her indifference, it was easy.

Gradually, Lina had come back to the way she’d been before Sacha; life was life, roving, wavelike, with the same quantities of pleasure, discomfort, sorrow, and excitement. Peace at the end of longing. The time with him, she’d thought she was happy. But along with that jolt of victory—he chose me—she’d felt a constant anxiety: Would she be able to

Their conversations didn’t catch, the way Lina needed hers to lock and turn.

When Lina left the ground-floor office, it was snowing. Taxis moved slowly as in a dream. She skied along the park uptown.

Walter would tell him the love of your life is the person with whom you spend your life.

What he liked best in college was meeting a friend for a walk. He wished he could major in walks.

At moments, it felt like they were gaining traction; other times, conversation felt like work. Evan

One night, before she went home from the library, Lina found a room of cookbooks. She wrote down a California chef’s salad dressing recipe and made it in a jar. Her dinner tasted like a dish in a restaurant Sometimes, now, she was happy.

When Lina called Jess that day, she heard something new in her friend’s voice. Jess, she could tell, was getting better. Soon, Lina would be alone in this unexplainable place.