This Could Be Us

Soledad dines with Yasmen and Hendrix at Yasmen’s restaurant, Grits, after their pole-dancing class. She reveals that she had sex with Judah but worries that, after Edward, she can’t trust her own judgment. Yasmen retorts that it was Edward that Soledad couldn’t trust.

Soledad does a live video from her she shed when she can’t sleep. Judah texts her and comes over to bring her a weighted blanket to help her sleep. They have sex, and Soledad feels transformed. She admits that she’s beginning to trust him.

Judah and Soledad play strip Uno in her shed. Judah accuses Soledad of cheating since she is winning and he is down to only his underwear and one sock. Soledad does always seem to have a wild card in her hand. When he sees the scar on her palm from when she cut her hand carving up Edward’s man cave with her machete, Soledad is unhappy at the memory: “That was another woman, and I don’t much want to revisit her” (319). The scar bisects the lifeline on her palm, as if Edward’s betrayal split her life in two. She cries because she feels like she’s healing.