punch line

"Nina, how was Malibu?", I ask.

"Amazing! It was really great and the wedding was a lot of fun. Laura looked beautiful, of course."

I see Shoshanna nodding out of the corner of my eye. Everyone at the table turns their attention to the exhange.

"There was so much food and we drank our faces off." She stops for a moment, looking past us. I turn and look behind me, trying to see what's caught her eye.

"You know what was so funny?", she continued, "We were having so much fun, drinking and dancing, and at one point I looked up, and I saw Laura look back at me from across the room. She looked beautiful - honestly, radiant, and she smiled and winked at me, just like old times, as if to say, this is great, isn't it? Aren't we having so much fun?"

We're all listening, waiting for the punch line, smiling and nodding.

She continues, her voice a little shrill, "I smiled back at her and winked, but then I got this weird feeling. So I turned around and there was Greg, her new husband, standing right there behind me. She wasn't even looking at me. The whole time she'd been winking at Greg!", she laughed.

My heart sinks.

"It was so funny! I mean really, it was hysterical."