-MIA-
Since my old apartment over the Chinese restaurant was officially vacant, I had nowhere to live. Jake brought me to his place—a one-bedroom in Brooklyn that he shared with my mom.
I spent the day crying and watching thrillers, because rom-coms were a hard no and action movies felt too Asher-adjacent. My mom curled up on the couch with me, nodding through my babbling complaints and my full-throttle bitching about Linda.
She brought me tea and a grilled cheese. I drank the tea. The sandwich sat untouched. My stomach was too sad to eat.
But by the next morning, I couldn’t stay. The place was tiny, and I’d already taken the couch hostage.
So I moved into a cheap Airbnb—the basement of an old couple’s house in the suburbs, close to the diner I used to work at. It was dark, cold, and
