The Note

by Alafair Burke

Could a question be

a lie? That one probably counted.

Plan your work and work your plan.

Lauren, because of the affair. Kelsey, because of her husband’s murder. And May, because of a confrontation on a subway platform. Three women, judged and vilified by strangers.

All of this was weighing on May as she and Kelsey played catch-up over their matching meals of martinis, shrimp cocktails, and rare rib eyes.

She’d eat a dozen oysters all by herself with an extra-dry martini.”

People are objectively horrible now.”

But what she was doing tonight felt more like self-medication than recreational drinking.

Curious about whether other people had gone through the same kind of personality shift, she came upon a published study where the researchers found that, early in the pandemic, there was a counterintuitive decrease in neurotic tendencies that contribute to stress. But in the second and third years after the initial onset, the researchers found significant increases in neuroticism and declines in the characteristics that help people to successfully navigate social situations. May felt validated by the findings until she got to the part that noted the personality changes were most pronounced in young people.

Even charged them all with obstruction, sure one of them would break. The odds of two people going down together? Very low. But three? It’s so easy to pit three people against each other. Isn’t someone always the third wheel? That’s the person to peel away.”

Kelsey was reading a Megan Abbott novel on the chaise longue next to hers.

“And I don’t get a say-so in this?” He took a sip of his drink, holding her gaze. “In what I do for a friend in my capacity as a lawyer? No, you actually don’t. This doesn’t affect you.”