A granule of salt must’ve caught in my throat because I had to cough a few times before I could laugh. “Camryn,” I said between cough-laugh spasms, “I am so not after him. He’s all yours, and I sincerely wish you the best of luck because, honey, you’re gonna need it.” I took another sip.

Her eyes narrowed. “Why do you say that?”

A glimmer of a strategy started to coagulate at the fringes of my mind. A devious one, true, but both drinking to excess and being around Sam had a way of bringing out the worst in me.

Again, I told Jane to calm down. (She wasn’t letting up on the ranting.) I assured her I was doing all right and had the situation under control. Really.

Then I smiled sweetly at Camryn. “You each got into med school, right?”

“Right,” Camryn said.

“The same med school?”

“No.”

“The same city, at least?”

She shook her head and the gorgeous dark red tresses swayed like weeping willows. “But he’ll be in New York, and I’ll be in Philadelphia. They’re not that far apart. We may be busy, but we’ll see each other on some weekends and — ”

“When do you leave?”

She pressed her lips together and her grip on her daiquiri tightened. “The end of the month. Why?”

“He’ll break things off before then,” I told her, my voice projecting a certainty I didn’t feel in truth, but I made sure I sounded believable.

She tried to shrug it off. “Just because you couldn’t hold on to him doesn’t mean I — ”

“Has he told you he loves you?”

“I don’t have to answer that,” she shot back.

“Fine, don’t answer. Just think. Has he made you any promises? Or, when you bring up the future, does he deflect your questions?” I stopped for a long swallow of margarita.