“Oh, wow,” he said, “I totally forgot that was tonight. Did we make an actual plan to watch it together?”

This wasn’t something I was assuming—we had spoken about it. I’d even mentioned it to my mother in his earshot not four hours ago. Dave knew how excited I was to see my name all alone on the screen. He was going to come over and we were going to watch the show together. I was going to grill up some steaks outside and make his favorite twice-baked potatoes.

“Well, I don’t know if we actually made a ‘plan’ as you call it, but I’ve been talking about this for weeks. You knew it was tonight— the show is airing special during sweeps and we’re on Saturday nights all May. You know what a big deal this is for me. It’s my show. Is this about brunch with Mom?”

“No, it’s not about brunch,” Dave said, too fast. “I’m so sorry, baby—my buddy Isaac is having a bad time and asked me if he could come over and hang with me. I think he wants a shoulder to lean on. His writing career is going nowhere and he’s really down.”

I tried to gulp down my hurt feelings. “I just thought we were going to be together. It’s a big night for me.”

“I know, but not everyone is lucky enough to be able to write on a prime-time show. Don’t you remember what it was like when you were just starting out and would get so down about not having any work?”

I actually didn’t remember, because I’d always been working. I’d had to work to survive. I didn’t know how all these struggling writers came to LA to write but didn’t have jobs. I mean, how did they live?

“I don’t really feel it would be cool to cancel on him, do you?” Dave sounded so reasonable, but still, this was the second Saturday night in a row he had left me on my own. And last Saturday he had ended up at Locanda Veneta. “Baby, remember that we have a life-time of Saturday nights ahead of us. This is just one night.” Dave could be so smooth when he wanted to, and he’d said the magic word, “lifetime.”

“Well, I guess if Isaac is having a tough time and needs to talk, you should be there for him,” I stammered out. I was looking down at my fingernails, which I had again gnawed to nothing.

“I don’t know why you didn’t plan to have your mom come over and watch the show with you. You should call her.”

“Are you kidding me? This is something I want to celebrate. She’d just ruin it somehow.” I couldn’t think of anything worse.