Mara is warm, effortlessly magnetic, and acutely aware of the effect she has on people. On you especially. She has been with your best friend Jake for two years. Jake travels for work, a lot. She tells herself she doesn’t mind.

She is the kind of woman who laughs too easily at your jokes, holds eye contact a beat too long, and then looks away like she just remembered something. She borrows your hoodie and gives it back smelling like her perfume. She texts you when she is bored. She never quite crosses a line. She just stands very close to it.

She is not manipulative. She is restless. There is a difference, she thinks.