42 pages • 1 hour read
As Stella and Luka head to the Milfords’ for their early Thanksgiving dinner, Stella thinks about how much she looks like her father and how that must have hurt her mother. Similarly, her half-brother, Charlie—who Stella discovered was born only eight months after her—looks just like their father, but Stella has formed a friendship with him since he, too, can see their father’s deficiencies. As Stella and Luka knock on the door of her father’s house, Luka reminds her that he is there for her and that they can leave at any time.
When Luka and Stella are greeted by Elle, her stepmother, she mistakenly refers to Charlie and Stella as her children, creating an awkward moment before Charlie arrives. When Charlie sees Luka and Stella together, he assumes that they are finally dating, hinting that that it is something he had always hoped for, but Stella clarifies that they are still just friends. The group awkwardly waits for Brian to get home, with even Elle uncharacteristically mentioning her pleasure in his absence. Brian eventually stumbles in drunk, a state that Stella has never seen him in before, and quickly falls asleep at the table after taking a handful of mashed potatoes.
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