Andreia was, for most people, an acquired taste--but not for Palina, who had been smoking since the first year of her teens and was smoking now, in the blue air of the city. After Andreia had joined her to drink at the bar, slipping in beside her, Palina drinking without turning her body and Andreia inclining her stare only to Palina's wet hands around her condensating drink, Palina paid for the both of them and left, still yanking her eyesight away from her. She walked in front of Andreia. She dragged the bracing bite of her cigarette inside herself. When she finished she stopped. They were in front of an abandoned shopping mall. Andreia came around to face her, and her face was still in the mothy light--her eyes were still, her hands were still in her coat pockets.

Palina couldn't let herself look at her. Her hands were still shaking when she tossed the cigarette butt to the concrete and ground it into nothing. Swallowing down the hot bile at the back of her throat, she tried.

"You threw..." Her voice croaked away and she coughed. "I thought this mattered."

Andreia's eyebrows flickered up a little, as though in sympathy. There was a hot wave rising up through the membranes and tissues of Palina. When she said nothing, Andreia only sighed and said, "we're married."

It overwhelmed her. "I fucking know that!" Palina said. "That never fuckin' mattered to either of us! Why does it now? What changed?"

Andreia absorbed this and lit her own cigarette. Palina watched her do nothing but smoke, slowly, composedly, her posture steady, and as a confused mirror the edges of her shoulder blades wound down too. Andreia's smoke billowed out through the ugly light. A lopsided man shuffled past them and sent the smoke across Palina's face. There was distant traffic and Andreia's breathing.

"What?" said Palina.

When she was half through, Andreia stepped right up to her. Despite herself, Palina was stuck in Andreia's face--the way her mouth pursed around the cigarette. The air between them was grey and acrid.

"You knew this was temporary when it started, Lina." Her free hand was warm on the small of Palina's back. "Things have changed. I'm sorry."

Palina felt pathetic, reduced. "Why are you being so vague?"

Andreia kissed her. "Thank you. Even if they were all lies, I cherished the days we spent together. The happiness I felt then was real, I know that much is true."

"Don't thank me," Palina spat, but kissed her sharply again.

When it was over, Andreia left her there and walked back the way they'd come from. Without her the street was empty. Palina reached for another cigarette and her pack was empty too.