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“Great.”

“A lot. More than you could probably guess.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes,” he said. “I thought of where I knew you from, by the way.”

Lauren’s heart started pounding. “Really?” she asked.

“Yes,” he answered. “I used to see you in the park.”

“The park?”

“Yes, Madison Square Park. You used to lie there and talk to yourself.”

“What?” Lauren felt dizzy.

“I used to work right there, and we’d see you on our lunch break. One of my buddies thought you were retarded.”

“I didn’t—that wasn’t me. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, come on, Lauren, give it up! I saw you. I saw you every day. Don’t be upset about my buddy calling you a retard, he was just playing around. Anyway, when he said that, I told him, ‘I’d still sleep with her. She’s still hot, even if she is a retard.’ ”

“I didn’t” was all Lauren could say.

“So, what were you doing there anyway? You were there every day and then one day you weren’t there. I always wondered what happened to you. I always wondered what you were doing, lying there and talking to yourself.”

“I wasn’t doing anything,” Lauren said.

“Well, Lauren, you must have been doing something.”

Lauren wished she hadn’t told him her real name. She didn’t like the way it sounded coming out of his mouth.

Lauren never told her friends how much she went to the park after Preston dumped her. They wouldn’t have understood that it was the only place she wanted to be. She figured she’d just keep going there forever, lie on the grass and look at the clouds, happy in her own world. But then one day she went to the park and it rained. It rained big, thick drops that made noise when they hit the ground. Lauren watched as the white light clouds soiled themselves, turning an army brown and finally a slimy black. She lay there, feeling the people around her gathering their things and leaving. But she stayed, watching the clouds quiver and finally release. She kept her eyes open the whole time. She didn’t even blink.

One drop hit her chest and stayed intact, a tiny puddle of rain wobbling on top of her skin. Others fell on her face, sliding off the grooves of her nose and mouth. Some hit her eyeballs, and she thought they ran right inside her head, through her eyes and all the way to her brain. She let them all fall on top of her, let them soak her one at a time.

She watched a cloud turn into a shape that she recognized. It was a ham—but not the ham she had seen in her head. No, this was an ugly ham, a deformed ham. She watched it float along the sky and she was repulsed. It had bumpy skin and big nostrils. It was so fat that it looked like it was going to burst. She stayed there and watched as it floated away and got eaten by the other clouds. And then she left.

Lauren didn’t go back to the park after that. She hadn’t wanted to. She wasn’t totally over Preston, but something in her shifted. Wanting him back was like wanting to cut off your arm or have your toes poked with needles. It didn’t make sense. Her friends never knew exactly what had happened, but they were just happy she was getting back to normal.

“Breakups are tough,” Isabella said. “But you got through it!”

“I’m glad you’re over him,” Shannon said. “Now you need to go find another asshole to fuck with your head.”

But none of them knew that it was the ham that had done it. How could something that Lauren made up in her own head turn so ugly? How could her creation get so out of hand? It was that ugly ham that made her move on.

Lauren was still standing at the man’s table. She couldn’t seem to make herself walk away.

“Would you like to have dinner with me sometime?” He smiled and sat back, like he was sure she would be flattered at this invitation.

“No,” she said. “I really wouldn’t.”

“I’m very successful,” he said. He slurred a little.

“Why are you here alone?” Lauren asked.

“I’m celebrating. I’m celebrating a big deal.”

“Alone?”

“I’m very successful,” he said, sounding impatient. “I told you that already.”

“Well, you’re not the type of guy I want to go to dinner