One night, I stayed late. Daniel fell asleep during a movie. Claire and I sat on the back porch. It was autumn. She was drinking red wine; I was drinking root beer. She talked about a professor she loved in college, a man who had since died. She cried a little. And in that moment, something shifted in my chest—a tectonic plate of the heart moving without permission.

Emily was everything Alex’s parents weren’t—attentive, creative, and full of stories about her own youth. When she invited Alex to “family dinners” just the three of them, it felt like trust. But trust twisted into something else when Alex caught themselves imagining her differently: not as Jake’s mom, but as someone who might… see them.

: Often portrayed as earnest but overwhelmed by his feelings, making him a relatable (if controversial) lead.