I stop dancing and reconsider the confined space full of work clothes and boxes. Maybe I should sleep in the closet. It’s small, barely large enough for me to sit in comfortably, but it might work. I’ll try tonight. Something I can control, right?

I’ll figure it out later. For now, I have to go get fired and then dumped by a narcissistic malcontent.

My stomach lurches.

I hate talking in front of people, and knowing I’m going to get fired at the end is like an extra turd on a giant crap cake.

But it’s not a life-or-death situation like my mind wants to believe. Like my body seems to. My own thoughts make it worse. They always have. How do I escape my own self-defeating thoughts?

But what else can I do? I have to get through this, right? At least I have a brand-new pitch to try out.

And I have an idea on how I can avoid the train.

I bring sanitizing supplies to the pay phone on the corner, clean it off, and then call the yellow cab.

I arrive at the office ten minutes sooner than I would have if I had taken the train, and I’m poop-free.

It’s already a better day.

This is totally going to work.

Instead of asking Hannah or Presley to tell the others I’m here, I go straight to the conference room. I miss running into Alex but, oh well, it’s not like he’ll notice or care.

And still, knowing how this ends, knowing I won’t die or anything doesn’t change my body’s response. I’m sweating. Again. My heart is racing. Again. Black dots swarm the edges of my vision.

No.

I can do this.

This is just a meeting. I’ve been here before. But why does my body respond like I’m surrounded by black mambas?

Ugh. Get over this, Jane.

It’s great. It’s fine. I’m going to sweat like a pig and screw it up and I hope I do, I hope it’s terrible, I hope they go all Lord of the Flies and band together and kill me.

I almost laugh at the thought, the ridiculousness of my thoughts dropping my anxiety down a notch.

What’s the worst that can happen? It already has. They’re just going to fire me. It sucks, but it’s not death.

“It opens with a brief clip showing the development of a budding romance, two lovers meeting for the first time at a restaurant. More clips of them dating, kissing, moving in together, a whole relationship revealed in the span of seconds. Then they’re fighting, yelling in the rain, at night. They’re both alone.