Chapter 6 - Ava Saw What Spencer Was Becoming at Home
Ava Collins had been my friend since:
college.
She worked in brand strategy.
Nothing to do with:
Ainsley Coastal.
Which made her useful.
She knew:
me
before Spencer.
After we began dating, she liked him.
For about:
six months.
Then she started noticing things.
Spencer answered my phone.
Not always.
“Your dad.”
“Peyton.”
“The office.”
He said he was:
helping.
He chose:
restaurants,
weekends,
travel.
Again:
not sinister alone.
Then one night at dinner I disagreed with him about moving in together.
He leaned close and said:
“Stop embarrassing me.”
Ava heard.
In the bathroom she asked:
“Are you okay?”
I laughed.
“He’s annoyed.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
I said:
“I’m fine.”
Later, Spencer told me:
“Ava wants you single.”
Why?
“She gets all of you when you’re single.”
Absurd.
Yet slowly I saw Ava less.
That is how control works when it wants to remain invisible.
It does not say:
You may not have friends.
It teaches you each friend has a hidden motive.
Eventually you isolate:
May you like
yourself.
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