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corner, and when Jenna admired it, Chloe said that she had a friend who loved sports and had bought it for her so they could watch together. As Jenna took a breath to ask about the friend, Chloe said, “Come on back to the kitchen. I’ll show you around in a little while, but let’s take some time to catch up first.”
    As she walked through, Jenna fell in love with the house. Warmth and charm seemed to radiate from the very walls. The kitchen was small but contained all the necessary appliances, including a microwave with more controls than a small jet plane and something Chloe called a convection oven. “I don’t cook much, but when I do leftovers and TV dinners, those are the best and fastest.” The pièce de résistance was the small garden in the back of the building, accessed by a door covered by a wrought-iron trellis which, Jenna imagined, was both protective as well as decorative. “I love what I’ve seen so far, especially this backyard.” Jenna pointed to the door that led out the back. “May I?”
    â€œSure. The key’s on the hook.” Jenna dropped her suitcase on a kitchen chair and grabbed the key. She quickly unlocked the backdoor and stepped outside. “This is amazing,” she said as Chloe followed her into the miniature garden, surrounded by a seven-foot-tall fence of classically weathered wood. The late spring air was thick with the smell of roses from several climbing vines that snaked their way up the brick wall, almost covering the kitchen window. “I have to keep cutting them or I wouldn’t be able to see out at all,” Chloe said, following Jenna’s gaze.
    A small patch of earth was filled with red and white impatiens and petunias. There was a tall wrought-iron pole with a bird feeder hanging from each of its curved arms. “I can’t get over it.” Off to one side was a small fish pond with several large goldfish and a tiny rock-strewn waterfall. “I would never have expected this in the middle of Manhattan.”
    â€œI know. It’s a lot of work but I just love it. I still remember when Aunt Elise and I sat out here as adults and equals for the first time.” There was a melancholy smile on Chloe’s face.
    â€œI’m sorry about her death.”
    â€œYeah, me too. She was quite a lady,” she hesitated, “and quite a pisser too. Wait until I tell you about her.”
    Jenna said, “From the little you’ve told me I’m sorry I never met her.”
    â€œMe too. You’d have liked her.”
    â€œI want to put my things away but let’s sit out here for a while first and catch up. I’m just blown away by this garden.”
    A few minutes later the two women were stretched out on a pair of white wrought-iron lounge chairs covered with thickly stuffed red and white striped cushions, tall glasses of sweetened iced tea in their hands. “Tell me all about you,” Chloe said and, slowly at first, then more definitively, Jenna told Chloe about Glen and her feelings about him and about herself.
    â€œHe sounds like a keeper. What could be wrong with a good-looking attorney? Wasn’t he any good in bed?”
    Jenna blushed slightly. In college, the last time they had spent any real time together, Chloe had been quiet and demure but, in the time since, her friend had become surprisingly outspoken.
    â€œHe was fine in bed,” Jenna said, finding it strangely easy to talk about it. “Actually, fine is a good word. It was very okay and not much more.”
    â€œNo spark? No earth moving or sky rockets?”
    â€œSadly, no. I think I could have dealt with the rest if I hadn’t felt so,” she hesitated, then blurted out, “bored in bed.”
    â€œThe death knell of any relationship.”
    â€œI felt like such a shit telling him no as he sat there with a ring in his hand. But Chloe, there was more to my leaving than Glen. His