Twisted Love

After an engagement shoot for one of her clients, photographer Ava Chen cannot find a ride to her home, which is adjacent to the campus of Thayer University. Stranded while a rainstorm thunders overhead, she calls her older brother, Josh, to ask for a ride. His car has been borrowed by a friend, but Josh tells Ava that a mysterious “he” will pick her up. Ava is surprised that her brother is not more worried about her situation, as he has always been overprotective of her ever since “The Incident,” a childhood event in which she nearly drowned at the age of five. Ava hints briefly at her aquaphobia—a result of this childhood trauma.

Alex Volkov picks up Ava in his Aston Martin, and she is not happy to see him. The drive back is filled with strained and stilted dialogue that illustrates the apathetic, distanced relationship between the two. When Alex stops at the bakery to pick up the cake Ava commissioned for Josh’s going-away party, he doesn’t allow Ava to get out of the car because the rain has turned her white shirt completely transparent. When Ava accuses him of staring at her, Alex claims with hostility and indifference that she couldn’t be further from his type.