I resumed googling Dave to see what he was working on. I knew he wanted to work in features, but he was just doing episode after episode of TV. At least he was busy. I also monitored Chloe’s career on IMDB.com. She was still in Europe on that movie shoot, which meant she hadn’t been about to fly off to Mexico for Jon and Catherine’s destination wedding. I guess that was why I never saw the cherry red Mercedes. Dave had another Mystery Woman, and I couldn’t ferret out who it was.

I slogged through some more dates, all setups from Azita, Lauren, and a couple of distant friends. One was with an actor who flat out told me on our first date that he thought dating me “would be really good for me during pilot season.” There was a stockbroker who used the N-word casually during dinner. Like Grant the porn perv, he was another good-on-paper guy, with a three-million-dollar house in Hermosa Beach. He ordered martinis with extra olives and had his initials stitched into the cuffs of his shirt. The racist also had a manicure. Touching up my lipgloss in the ladies’ room, I realized his nails looked better than mine.

Saying good night at the end of one of these hopeless dates, I’d pull around the corner from the restaurant and park. I’d sit in the dark with my hands on the steering wheel and think about Dave, Dave and me, Dave and Chloe, and Chloe’s breast.

I started doing all my busy errands on the weekend in Studio City. I liked the anonymity of the Valley, all the happy couples pushing their strollers. Most of the new moms still carried around the extra baby weight, and it made me feel better about myself to sit at the local Peet’s Coffee and read the paper.

In late August, about four months after Dave and I broke up, my anonymity at Peet’s was blown. “Dani, is that you?” It was Janey, my college boyfriend Jack’s sister.

“Hey, Janey. How are you? You look great.” I meant it; she did. No baby weight on her—she looked like she’d dropped at least ten pounds.

“I’m good, you know, still acting. I’m in a showcase at my acting school for the next couple of weeks, if you want to come check it out.”

“Oh, wow, that would be great.” Nothing put a chill up my spine more than the idea of checking out someone’s play, or a “showcase” for acting talent.

Jack was my first big relationship when I came to LA. He was cute, and his dad had been a somewhat well known television star back in the ’70s. His father’s star had since fallen, but he was still well known enough to command respect at any of the large delis in the Valley.