Chapter 10: Chosen

The box sat on my kitchen table.

It was the size of a shoebox, wrapped in plain brown paper, with my name printed on a label.

No return address, only a card from Lila Ardmore's management office.

Dottie stood on one side of it with the skillet.

Ashton stood on the other, still in his stage T-shirt, with his hair damp from a hurried shower.

"Do you want me to open it?" he said.

"No."

I peeled the tape back myself.

Inside was a thick manila folder, and on top of the folder, a sticky note in blue ink.

I'm sorry. I couldn't do this anymore. Please read all of it. A friend.

"Someone who works for Lila," Ashton said.

"Obviously."

I opened the folder.

The first page was a photograph.

It was a bus bench on Figueroa Street, with a smiling woman in blue scrubs holding a toothbrush next to a golden retriever.

Beneath it, in bold letters, it said EASTSIDE ANIMAL DENTAL: ASK FOR MAEVE.

I laughed, because it was so stupid.

My boss had begged me to model for that ad, five years ago, because we couldn't afford a real model.

I remembered the picture day, and the lemon cookies from the bakery next door.

I remembered a man in a gray T-shirt sitting alone at the bus stop and reading the whole bench.

I remembered that he'd asked me out three days later.

"That's you," Dottie said, looking over my shoulder.

"That's me."

"Why would it be in a box?"

I turned the page.

It was an email, printed, with the header cut off.

From Lila to a name I didn't know, copied to Rex Kotter.

I read it standing up.

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