in her small apartment. For two days, she drifted in and out of a restless

her face etched with worry. "You ne

ungry," Av

ow Jake used to take care of her when she was sick, how he would bring her soup and read to her

his number from memory. She didn't know what she would say. M

, twice. Then, a wo

" It wa

t in her throat. S

Jake's little fans, he's busy. And he's mine." There was a pause, then a cr

miliation. Chloe was at his

. You know how it is." She paused again, letting the implication sink in. "Actually, you p

deliberate, cal

op calling. It's pathetic. He's moved on.

spent the entire night. He always had an early meeting, a conference call, a reason to leave. She had thou

ic scene. A man's hand-Jake's hand, recognizable by the signet ring he always wore-was resting on a kitchen

ved with him, the kind he had always dismissed as boring or u

ight. She looked around her apartment, at the scripts she'd been studying, the headshots

ne knew her name. The thought of quitting, of giving up t

by again that evening

g onto the couch. "But it's impossible. Jake's company has b

ng. They're saying... they're saying you knew the deal. That it was always a transactional relationship. T

eved it. She saw her not as a woman who had been b

hat it was,"

k. "It doesn't matter what it was, Ava