And then, because the rain had loosened the locks on their hearts, she told them about Arjun.

Her friends leaned in. This was the unspoken rule. Divya was the pragmatist, Priya the cynic, and Anjali the heart—the one who believed in the arc of a good story, even when her own seemed to be stuck in the second act’s conflict.

“No,” Anjali shook her head. “I mean the real storyline. The one we tell ourselves at 2 AM.”