5.
Anna swipes the notification away and opens Instagram. She immediately goes to “search”. At the top of her “recent searches” is “Douglas Whitaker”. She taps on it as if by rote. Douglas has still only ever posted four photos. A slice of thin crust pepperoni pizza with the hashtag #thincrust, a selfie of him with an exaggerated incredulous look on his face pointing at a Starbucks coffee with his name misspelled as “Dougles”, a photo of a slice of thick crust pepperoni pizza with the hashtag #thickcrust, and a posed family photo of Douglas, Anna and Elizabeth. ANNA (to self) Anna taps on the family photo and stares at it for a beat too long, then puts her phone down and sits in her chair to see if she can catch a glimpse of the new neighbors. So far nothing but movers. Anna leans over and picks up her mystery novel (The Girl Across the Lake) and starts to read until something catches her eye... A HANDSOME MAN stands in the open front door, directing the movers. He’s joined by an adorable LITTLE GIRL. The handsome man goes upstairs with the little girl. Anna sees them in an upstairs window. The handsome man opens a box as the little girl looks on. He digs around then pulls out...a teddy bear. The little girl takes the teddy bear and sits on her bed hugging it. Same four photos. At least I’m not the only one who hasn’t moved on. The handsome man exits then appears in another upstairs window. He starts putting men’s clothes in the closet. He’s truly, strikingly handsome. Anna scans the other windows. ANNA (CONT'D) (to self) No wife? She takes a long sip of wine and continues watching the handsome man and the little girl. Anna’s landline phone rings. She makes no move to answer it and keeps watching. ANSWERING MACHINE (O.C.) (Elizabeth’s voice)
Hi! You’ve reached the Whitaker residence! We’re not home, so please leave a message and we will definitely call you back!
Beep.
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