33: Larissa

Larissa recounts that Chris has effectively ghosted her since a brief pharmacy encounter two weeks earlier. She tried to care for Chris by delivering homemade soup, but he reimbursed her and never responded, leaving her uneasy and isolated. As she works nonstop and packs to move in with Mike, anxiety mounts about dependence and leaving her mother, job, customers, and routine.

Larissa stays at her mother’s to savor time before her mother’s move, yet she feels a growing dread about moving in with Mike. She notes how much she misses Chris’s presence in her life, recognizing a void that neither work nor Mike fills. She plans for Chris to pick her up on Christmas Eve and intends to ask about her snow-cleared car, keeping it from Mike to avoid making him feel guilty.

Unable to settle, Larissa decides to go to Mike’s that night, reasoning that a real bed and proximity to her new home will help. Mike doesn’t answer calls, but she has a key. On arrival, she finds all the lights on and the kitchen littered with fast-food trash, an empty vodka bottle, and club soda—signs that contradict Mike’s usual habits.

Cleaning up as she goes, Larissa turns a corner and discovers Mike passed out on the hallway floor, unconscious and lying in his own vomit, clearly drunk. The discovery confirms her worst fears about moving in and underscores Mike’s ongoing drinking problem, upending her hope for stability.