Page 135 of Alice Chen's Reality Check

Dawn Taylor has already left on a private jet, but one of the PAs does give Daniel and me a handwritten note card from her, which reads:

Thanks, Alice & Daniel.

xoxo Dawn

Chase finds me later as I’m waiting to board the plane back to the States. I hadn’t gone out of my way to talk to him these last couple days. I knew we’d end up at the same gate.

We are going to the same place, after all.

Chase and I are together again, a mirror of the day we arrived less than two weeks ago—but our relationship has irreparably changed. When Chase approaches me, his hands are in his pockets, and he looks sheepish, like he wants to ask me a question but hasn’t decided how he’s going to do it. He starts with, “Can we talk?”

We should. But I don’t want to.

But, as I thumb the engagement ring in my pocket, I know we have to be on the same page. Plus, we’re going to be both flying and driving home together, so there’s no point in making things awkward. I pat the seat next to me on the bench, and Chase sits down at an appropriate distance for formerly engaged exes.

It’s a far cry from the first day of filming, when I was cozied up to Chase on a yacht, desperate to say the right thing on camera. Everything has changed so much since then, in ways I couldn’t ever have predicted.

“I still can’t believe that asshole did it,” Chase begins.

“There’s a unique and very specific body of evidence that indicates that he did, indeed, do it,” I say, and Chase laughs.

“Yeah, I get it, Detective Pikachu,” Chase says. He clears his throat. “So we’re not getting back together, are we?”

“No,” I say. “We’re not.”

“I really love you, Alice. I’m sorry about everything,” Chase says earnestly.

“I love you too, Chase, but—” I stop because tears are welling up, and for once I don’t do anything to hold them back.

There are no cameras around. No one cares what I look like—and the truth is that Chase has seen worse. He’s seen me at my lowest—when I had to retake all my second-semester midterms because I’d burned out in my senior year of college, when I couldn’t land a job and I didn’t know where I was going to teach post-credential, when my mom had been diagnosed, and the nightmarish days that followed.

And while we’d loved each other through all of it, I’d always been looking for something more. Someone I felt I could truly count on. Someone who could challenge me and push me to be better. And someone who would always surprise and delight me.

I take a steadying breath and face Chase. “We can’t be together. I think this hasn’t been working for a while, for either of us. Even if we still care about each other, that’s not enough, you know?”

Chase nods. “Yeah. Okay.”

“Maybe you and Selena should give it a go if that’s still on the table.” I take the engagement ring from my pocket and hand it over to him. “Here.”

Chase shakes his head and pushes the ring back. “Keep it. It’s yours. You can return it or do whatever you want. Buy your mom the bestbedsheets there are at Macy’s or replace her wok.”

“Are you kidding? You know she loves that thing.”

“True, she did tell me once that it’s her second child,” Chase says. “Alice, if there’s anything I can do to help with your mom, just let me know, okay?”

“Thank you,” I say, and I mean it. I reach over and hold his hand until it’s time for us to depart.

—

It’s much too late when I finally let myself into my apartment. Chase is crashing with a friend to give me space. It’s strange, coming home alone.

I’m so tired, I practically faceplant into my bed, only stopping long enough to pull off my clothes and pull on an oversized tee. But instead of going to sleep, I take out my phone and tap out a text.

ALICE

hi

DANIEL

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