I'm So Happy for You by Lucinda Rosenfeld

one of the comb’s teeth was missing?),
     set out alone for Pamela and Todd’s handsome brownstone duplex just off the park.
    Lucas Rose turned out to be an absurdly cute baby with fat pink cheeks and a full head of platinum hair. He spent the entire
     visit sobbing inconsolably. To Wendy’s incomprehension, Pamela and Todd didn’t seem to notice, or mind. Flouting Wendy’s explicit
     instructions not to cook, Pamela had “whipped up” a duck-and-white-bean cassoulet and a strawberry layer cake for lunch. Miraculously,
     she’d already lost all of her baby weight except for two pounds. She spent most of the meal peppering Wendy with solicitous
     questions about Ron’s accident. (Daphne, a decent gossip in her own right—though she always denied it—had already relayed
     the terrible news to all their mutual friends.) Wendy spent most of lunch yelling, “Sorry, what did you say?” and secretly
     wishing someone would chuck Baby Luke out the window.
    She left their apartment on the verge of tears, if only because they all seemed so happy—at least, Pamela and Todd did. She
     also had a splitting headache.
    Wendy filled the rest of the weekend eating breakfast cereal straight out of the box and reading
Anna Karenina
(admittedly skipping the boring Levin/joys of agriculture sections in favor of Anna and Vronsky and their steamy if increasingly
     paranoid affair). In her newfound solitude, she felt alternately listless and liberated.
    There was no news from Newton.
    Daphne called Sunday night to find out how Ron was doing since she and Adam had last spoken (apparently he’d picked up when
     she called), and also to report that Jonathan had told her that he loved her and that she’d told him the same.
    “Wow, it really
is
serious,” said Wendy.
    “Um, yeah!” said Daphne, as if Wendy’s assessment were obvious.
    Daphne also suggested that she and Wendy get together for a “catch-up dinner” the following week. “You must be so lonely without
     Adam,” she said. “Jonathan and I had to spend the night apart two nights ago, and I swear my apartment felt like a ghost town!”
    “I’m doing okay—it’s a little quiet at home,” said Wendy, who appreciated Daphne’s concern but didn’t find their situations
     comparable. “So when were you thinking in terms of dinner?”
    “Well.” Daphne let loose a long sigh, as if her jam-packed schedule required a lengthy mental scrolling. “This week is kind
     of crazy. Then Snugs and I are going up to his parents’ place in Rhinebeck next weekend. But what about the Monday after that?”
    “That’s fine with me,” said Wendy, for whom the proposed date sounded impossibly far-off. “Where do you want to go?”
    “What do you say we do something totally ‘old-school,’ like go to the Odeon and eat hamburgers at the bar,” Daphne suggested
     in a conspiratorial voice.
    “That sounds perfect,” said Wendy, who missed her “single girl” years and didn’t miss them, in equal parts.
    In the intervening days, Wendy received another invitation—this one from Adam, inviting her up to Newton the following weekend.
     Apparently, Phyllis was now ready to “see people.” Happy to have been asked, Wendy told him she’d get the train up on Friday
     afternoon.
    “Oh, and would you mind bringing my laptop with you when you come?” Adam asked before he hung up. “I want to try and get some
     writing done in the off-hours. Also, I could use a few extra pairs of socks. And underwear. If you don’t mind—”
    “No problem,” said Wendy.
    She felt like a terrible liar that morning as she zipped his computer into its case, as if it hadn’t been opened since he
     left. Or was Adam, with his unwritten screenplay, the bigger liar of the two?
    • • •
    He was waiting for her on the platform. “Hey, Pope,” he said, but not with the usual glint in his eye.
    “Hey, Potato,” said Wendy, hugging him hello. For a second, she thought he’d contracted a severe