Before Philadelphia there was the parking lot behind the diner, where the two women stood between their cars and tried to remember how to occupy the same air. A delivery truck backed up with a warning beep. Carmen lit a cigarette, then looked at Elena and put it out against the sole of her shoe without taking a drag.
"I still want one when I am scared," Carmen said. "Wanting is not the same as taking. I am learning the difference in public, which is humiliating and useful."
Elena crossed her arms. "Marco should not have become your secret keeper."
"I know. I used his kindness because it was available and I was drowning. That is what I do—did—when I drown. I reach for the nearest solid thing and crawl up it, even if the solid thing belongs to someone else."
"You reached for my husband."
"I reached for a ride to my dying father," Carmen said, and then flinched at her own defensiveness. "Both things can be true. I am not asking you to like the method. I am asking you to see the destination."
Elena looked at the gray sky. "If I find out there is more—money, lies about where you were, anything that involves Sofia without my knowledge—I will end this. Not slowly. Completely."