Willa told me afterward that neither of them moved at all for the first part of it.

Maren said, “You’re Willa.”

And Willa said, “Yeah.”

And then, according to my fifteen-year-old, there was a stretch of perhaps fifteen seconds where neither of them said anything, and then Maren said: “You’re taller than I thought.”

Willa said, “Everyone says that.”

And Maren said, “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say to you.

I’ve had three years to think of it and I’ve got nothing.

I thought I’d be better than this.”