next thing.”
“You don’t have an itinerary?”
“Only a beginning.”
I looked at her carefully. Elise designed museum exhibits for a living, arranging rooms so strangers could move toward a discovery without noticing how deliberately the route had been built. She was very good at giving people the experience she believed they needed. I suddenly wondered how long she had been arranging this morning.
“If we’re doing this,” I said, “you can’t decide what everything means by yourself.”
Her hand stopped above the cake.
“I mean it. It’s your birthday.
