We Were Never Here

On the morning of Kristen’s 30th birthday, a bouquet of lilies arrives for her. Reading the accompanying note, she quickly realizes that the gift is the first in a series of clues Kristen has crafted for a scavenger hunt. As the hunt continues at work, Emily finds that Kristen roped Aaron and even her boss into the plot. Kristen suggested to Aaron that he gift Emily a wallet almost identical to one she lost in Chile. She even managed to get Emily one and a half days off from work. When Emily heads home early to start her time off, she sees Kristen waiting in a car outside; she has organized a long weekend trip to Nana and Bill’s lake house.

Emily loves the lake house, but she is annoyed that Kristen hijacked her birthday weekend plans with Aaron. Imagining that Aaron must have felt obligated to assent to Kristen’s plan, Emily thinks back to Kristen’s involvement in her past relationships. When she brings up her final text conversation with her ex, Colin, still on her phone, she is disturbed to find that Colin comes across as reasonable, while her own texts, dictated to her almost word for word by Kristen, seem overreactive and terse.