Chapter 2

Vivian's head snapped up. She put her phone away and took the slip of paper. By the time she looked over at me, I'd already dropped mine into the box. She dropped hers in right after.

"Why so secretive? We only find out on the last day of filming?" she teased Samuel, then looked at me confidently. "We're not getting divorced."

She helped me haul our bags to the hotel after that. We'd barely reached the door when her phone rang. She smiled right away and stepped aside to take the call. I dragged both suitcases up the stairs by myself.

When she came back, I held out her pajamas out of habit. She shook her head and didn't take them.

"I lost another bet to Miles," she said, laughing softly. "He says we can't sleep in the same room for the next seven days."

My hand hung there in the air. The old me would have started a fight right then. But I barely had the strength left to breathe, let alone argue with her.

I pulled my hand back and lay down on the bed. "Suit yourself, then. I'm tired. I'm going to sleep."

She was already back on her phone, not having heard a word I said.

The next morning, there was a new red string bracelet on her wrist. The damp hem of her dress told me she'd been out late the night before. Vivian kept rubbing her thumb over that red string without noticing she was doing it.

I couldn't help remembering when those bracelets were popular between couples years ago. I'd braided one myself and put it on her wrist, following the trend like everyone else. She'd thrown it in the trash in front of me, not even bothering to hide her contempt.

"If you've got that much free time, do some chores instead. You're almost thirty. Stop playing these childish games."

She never knew I'd spent weeks braiding that string between takes on set.

I studied the little charm on her new bracelet—the letter M was carved into it. It stung to look at it. Vivian always forgot that Miles was a year older than me. Here she was, happily playing his childish games instead.

"I picked up breakfast this morning. Let's eat before we go," she said.

It was the first time since our wedding that Vivian had ever bought me breakfast, even if it was only an excuse to cover for sneaking out the night before. Ever since Miles came into the picture, bringing him breakfast had become part of her morning routine.

She handed me a carton of milk again. I'd told her more times than I could count that I couldn't drink milk, but she never remembered. Miles only had to mention something once and she'd write it down in her Notes app. I caught a glimpse of that list once. It contained every detail about him, tracked down to the smallest thing.

When I reached for a cinnamon roll, she slapped my hand away. A dark red mark bloomed across the back of my hand.

Vivian pushed a bowl of oatmeal toward me instead. "This one's yours."

I remembered what I'd seen on Miles' social media that morning. He'd posted, full of himself, "Wish I could eat some of those warm cinnamon rolls my boss lady brings me."

That was when it all made sense.

I tried to remind her, "We're filming outdoors today."

She was already walking out the door with the food container in her hands. Snow started drifting down outside. I laughed under my breath at myself.

She never let anything stop her from going to see Miles, rain or shine. But when I'd been caught in a landslide on set once and called her in a panic, she'd thought I was being dramatic and hung up on me right away.

The emergency supplies she sent afterward went to the wrong location entirely. I nearly died in that landslide while she was off with Miles, checking into some amusement park.

Love and its absence were never hard to spot. I just needed to be dying to finally see it clearly.

I forced down a spoonful of oatmeal. It had already gone cold, while that box of cinnamon rolls was probably still steaming, tucked carefully against her chest the whole ride over so they wouldn't cool off too fast.

I knew exactly how much care and effort that took, because I'd once done the same thing myself. I stood outside her dorm building in weather just like this, cradling a box of cinnamon rolls and waiting for her to come out.

She loved someone else the exact same way I once loved her. That was what made me pathetic. That was what made this whole thing a joke.

I only found out Vivian would be gone for four days of filming when Samuel told me. I had to keep going with the other three couples on my own. For four straight days, the cameras followed me around even though I was basically invisible. Nobody wanted to talk to someone with a reputation as bad as mine.

And every single day, Miles' social media was full of activity.