Stephen and I had only hooked up once since Bear Mountain, in the side stairwell of Lydia’s apartment building on a night when I’d been staying there, because there was nowhere else to do it and we were practically already screwing on the street after dinner at Tacombi. That kind of chemistry—God, nothing compared. But now I had my own apartment, and Stephen was on the brink of leaving Alice, and everything was different and fresh and even the smallest daily tasks, like buying water at the bodega or swiping my MetroCard, were tinged with a sense of purpose and possibility.
