"Oh my god," she says about halfway through Neil's explanation, and by the time he's finished Rosie wishes she'd said something stronger. Anger mixes with incredulity, and maybe the slightest twinge of guilt--for this situation as much as another entirely of her own making, just as steeped in not saying things that ought to be said, or saying them too soon--and the resulting combination makes her feel more than a bit ill. "How dare he? He's not...it's not cheating, and even if it was, it's...he should have said something. He should have told you about Adam."

She takes another savage drag on her cigarette, blowing out the smoke in a long stream. "If I hadn't half-ruined things with Sabrina already, I'd ask if you want me to see if she can put a curse on him or something," she says. It's a joke, and it's not, and the honesty of admitting even offhand what she's been going through is a kind of relief in amongst everything else. "Nothing horrible, just inconvenient."