There’s really no evidence she’s seen for her to think anything substantial about Hannah, other than that her libido likes her. And Caroline has never acted solely on the decisions that her libido wanted, knowing that they will often be bad for her heart.

She calls Kris, her best friend since college, to share the news as she gets ready to go to Jared’s house.

And Kris, predictably, finds it all both hilarious and shocking. “Mrs. Bitch Office Hottie gave you her number?!”

“I guess it’s ex-Mrs. Bitch Office Hottie now,” she corrects, clipping her hair back the brown wavy strands falling to her shoulders. As soon as it was going to get.

“I honestly don’t know what to say… except, you can’t call her.” Kris informs her.

“I’m not!” She hesitates, frowning. “But. Why not? I thought that you thought my moratorium on dating was stupid?”

Actually, fucking ridiculous were the actual words Kris had used when Caroline had seen her a few weeks ago and had told her the news.

“It is stupid, because you are a gorgeous, successful, brilliant woman and thirty-four is too young to give up on love just because you’ve had a few pitfalls.”

“A few pitfalls,” she deadpans.

She thinks back over the last ten years – she can’t even remember the amount of people she's dated. But out of the three women she’s had a relationship with for longer than three months – all less than a year, though – they’d crashed and burned. And typically in ways she never saw coming. Which somehow made it suck even more.

Even Amanda, when dumping her a few weeks ago, did so by unceremoniously telling Caroline she wasn’t going to move in with her after all, and had met someone new that she just “connected” with, she’d decided that was it. She needed a break from trying to find someone.

“If you have a moratorium on dating, you’re always going to be lonely.” Kris acutely points out.

Because, the thing is, as much as she likes to pretend she isn’t, as much as she puts on that brave face whenever her mom asks when she’s bringing someone home, Caroline is lonely. She never thought she would get to her mid-thirties and suddenly look around to see that two out of three of her brothers are married, all three of them have kids, and all of her friends are at the very least in long term relationships, too.

It’s lonely to see what feels like everyone put together this piece of their lives that Caroline wishes she could find the secret ingredient for, herself. To her family, friends, and co-workers, she hides it very well, this yearning to find it. But Kris knows better.