5 Thankfully it wasn’t too late in the night and the phone was picked up after a few seconds. “Hello?” The voice on the other end of the phone sounded so calm and normal. Amanda knew better. “Hi Sylvia, it’s me, Amanda Stenser.” “Amanda! Oh my god, how have you been? How’s your vacation going? Is that boyfriend treating you right? He’s not abusing you, is he?” That was Sylvia, always willing to follow any train of thought and quickly derail it. “No, nothing like that. He’s actually been pretty great.” Amanda turned to him and smiled, while he gave her a big, proud toothy grin. “But listen, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me after work tomorrow. We could make it a kind of sleepover party, but during the-” “Sleepover! Oh my god, I love sleepovers!” Amanda je