Also around that time, she’d started to entertain the idea of having a baby—maybe even being a single parent by choice, though she didn’t share that notion with her family. When she broached the subject with Graham after just one month of dating, she was sure she’d just ruined the relationship, but Graham was into it, which she found incredibly romantic. They started trying only a few months later. Lauren figured that it would take a long time for them to conceive, but then she got a positive pregnancy test the first month. Things happened quickly after that: wedding plans, and then a move down the coast to a town that was more “family friendly” than LA—Raisin Beach’s public schools were some of the best in the state. Suddenly, they were going to be married and parents. Lauren was even secretly happy that one of Graham’s scripts hadn’t hit it big yet. They could be stay-at-home parents together.

But then, last winter, not long before Lauren’s due date, Gracie Lord chose Graham’s spec script from a pool of thousands of hungry screenwriters to join her writing room for the show’s fourth season. Graham was over the moon—Lauren, too, although, if she were being honest, the few times she’d watched the show, she thought it was kind of sophomoric and didn’t have believable plotlines. Regardless, not long after, the economy started to tank. Graham’s job was safe, but the sale of Lauren’s game, which had been a sure thing, was postponed. And postponed again. The money she’d hoped to flood in didn’t come. At this point, she wasn’t sure if it would ever come. It was probably good Graham got a job, and suddenly, their roles had flip-flopped. All at once, Graham was the achiever, and she was the one who wasn’t sure of her worth or her identity.

Graham had worked nonstop since he started at Ketchup, commuting two hours daily back up to Culver City. After the first week of working in the office, Graham floated the idea of renting an apartment in LA. But Lauren had had some . . . trouble, postpartum. And that idea was dropped.

“Can you text Clarissa?” Graham asked. “See if she can come in?”

Lauren squeezed her kneecaps. “I think I could handle Matthew alone for a few hours without the nanny.” But Graham cut her a sideways glance that was a mix between concern, sadness, and—maybe—warning. “Okay, okay,” she said, backtracking. “I’ll get her.”

She started texting. When she looked up, Graham had taken the road that would eventually parallel the ocean. It was the nicest route home.

“So did you say there’s going to be a documentary?” Graham murmured.

“I don’t know. She didn’t get into details. But it could be cool?”

“I don’t know if we should have Matthew involved. Privacy issues and all that.”