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proposal made me focus on where I was headed and how I was living. I’ve never been just me, alone. When he asked me to marry him, I suddenly felt, well, almost claustrophobic. It was like the walls were closing in. I couldn’t breathe.” She slumped.
    â€œI know exactly what you mean and that’s why I’m so glad you’re here,” Chloe said. “I’ve no intention of settling down right now, either. Frankly, I’m having too much fun. I’m less into finding Mr. Right as I am into Mr. Right Now.”
    Jenna smiled at Chloe’s candor. Suddenly she felt she had to get it all off of her chest. “It’s Marcy too. We’ve always been so close that the thought of going from such a close relationship with her to another intimate one was strangling me. I want some aloneness, if that word has any meaning. I need to be me!”
    â€œI realized that you two were trying to make separate friends. Maybe that was why she and I never got close in school.”
    â€œWe really did try to be separate but once we were back in Seneca Falls, it all fell back into the same old pattern, and I didn’t really mind for a while. Actually, I think Marcy would have been content to have us go on living in the same neighborhood, doing things together with our respective husbands.”
    â€œShe’s married?”
    â€œNo, but when she does, it will probably be to Mr. Seneca Falls and they’ll have two-point-three children.” Jenna stopped herself. “Sorry. That’s not fair of me at all. Marcy’s wonderful and my best friend. It’s just that we’re too close. I had to get away.”
    â€œOf course you did,” Chloe said, sipping her iced tea.
    â€œYou understand?” Jenna said, a bit nonplused. Her friends in Seneca Falls had looked at her blankly, and then told her she was crazy. A few sympathized, but most were small-town people at heart and viewed New York City as some kind of Sodom and Gomorrah, a center for terrorism, robberies, and rapes.
    â€œDon’t look so surprised. I can’t really relate to what goes on between you and Marcy,” Chloe said, “being an only child and all, but I can understand what you’re saying about being yourself. I’ve become a different person since I moved in here, so maybe the space will help you to get everything back into proportion.”
    â€œYou do seem more alive than when we were in school. You were always so, I don’t know, closed sort of. Now you’ve blossomed.”
    â€œThanks for that,” Chloe said with a grin. “Actually, when I came back home after I graduated, I got a job on Wall Street and became a staid, boring stockbroker. Business-casual clothes, business-casual lunches, business-casual friends, and a business-casual life. It was okay, but just okay.”
    â€œYou seem anything but ‘just okay’ now. What changed besides you not being a boring stockbroker any more?”
    â€œAunt Elise changed me,” Chloe said. “Let me get some more tea, and then I’ll tell you about her. Want some?”
    Jenna sensed the pain in Chloe’s voice when she talked about her aunt. The two had obviously been very close. Jenna looked at her glass and said, “Sure. Let me give you a hand.”
    â€œNot necessary. Right back.” As Jenna started to rise, Chloe grabbed the glass and motioned, “Sit, sit. I’ll just be a moment. This is the last time I wait on you, however. From now on, you live here and you’re on your own.”
    Settling back into her chair, Jenna thought about Chloe. The two women had had rooms close together in the dorm during their freshman year and had become closer and closer as their college years passed. By the end of their senior year they had been the best of friends, and the wrench she’d felt when Chloe had gone back to the city had been difficult. The two women had kept in touch in the