"No." Beth's a little incredulous at the thought. Maybe to this lady, she looks old enough, but it feels absurd to her. Marriage is the kind of thing best left to her big sister; if the world hadn't turned, Beth'd barely be in college right now, doing a lot of dumb things only tangentially related to matrimony. "It doesn't really...work out, when I date guys."

She can't just say every boy I've ever kissed is dead to a stranger, and not just because the thought of saying it makes her chest tighten. The general explanation is safer, and safer still is pushing the subject away from her entirely. "It must be awful to be separated. I'm sorry."