Lana hadn't been texting Ellie, and Ellie wondered if their friendship was truly, officially over. Part of her hoped Lana would get over herself and realize what a twit she was being, but that hadn't yet happened. She tried not to dwell on it, to continue living life as normal.

Right then, "normal" meant getting ready for Trina's New Year's Eve party. Lana would surely be there, and Ellie just had to pretend like everything was peachy between them, because if she didn't, she might decide not to go.

Fluffing her hair with the aid of some dry shampoo, she looked at herself in the mirror and hoped she looked the right combination of adult and youthful. She made a face like she didn't care, the face she would need to make if she made eye contact with Lana and Lana ignored her.

Dylan arrived a little later, and Ellie grew more nervous as she welcomed him. "Where is the sitter?" she asked Clay, since the girl hadn't yet arrived.

"She's not coming," he said. "She called a few minutes ago. It looks like I'll have to stay home with the kids so you and Dylan can go."

Ellie gave him a harsh look, because his words were so obviously lies. Why? Did this have something to do with Trina? He was having an affair, for fuck's sake, and not his first. He should be able to handle seeing Trina in public versus seeing her in private. He should be good at this by now.

"Whatever," Ellie said, not trying to hide her disappointment, and not trying to think too much about the situation, about how Dylan, her "stepson" who was dating Lake End's most-hated mother, would be her only wingman for the night. What would Lana think? What would all the moms think?

"Have fun, Mommy." Avery came up to her, and she bent down to hug him, turning her whole head away from him as he leaned in for a kiss, because she still feared the virus he'd contracted a couple of weeks prior. His face looked dejected, so she put her hand to his cheek and told him, "You are my favorite little pterodactyl, you know that? And we will have fun." She quickly washed her hands, before sparing one more glare at Clay.

"Should we get an Uber?" Ellie asked Dylan.

"I'm actually trying to drink less. New Year's resolution. I'll be your D.D."

That surprised Ellie, but she tried not to show it. "Perfect." She and Dylan left the house and got into his car, and they were off for the party. Ellie tried not to think about how she would rather be arriving in a different car, one that didn't look so run down.

As soon as they arrived at Trina's house, Ellie went straight to the drink table, a table decked out in a blue tablecloth covered in silver confetti. An assortment of drinks sat on the table: bubbling champagne in champagne glasses, red and white wine in wine glasses, unopened bottles of locally brewed beer, and a few miscellaneous cocktails adorned with sugared rims and fruits on toothpicks. It was a grab-and-go, so Ellie grabbed a red wine glass, and Dylan grabbed a bottle of beer, which he opened with one of the four bottle openers on the table. Ellie must have accidentally given him some side eye, because he held his hands up and said, "What? I can drink one and drive just fine. We're gonna be here until at least midnight, right?"

Ellie fake smiled and nodded, though the thought of actually staying until midnight made her throat spasm. She quickly eased it with a few gulps of wine. Why had she come here again? Maybe she should have stayed home, avoiding Lana and Melanie and Trina and everyone else. It wasn't like not coming would have been a one-way ticket out of Good Parents. She gulped faster.

"Woah there," Dylan said. "You alright?"

"I'm celebrating," she said, taking the drink away from her lips. "Happy New Year. Fresh start and all that."

"Ellie," someone said, and she turned around to find Heidi Vanwinkle.

"Heidi. How are you?"

Heidi examined the contents on the table. "Well, I'm trying to not be so sober so I start enjoying this party."

"Me too," Ellie admitted. "Uh, I don't think you've met Dylan. My husband's son."

"Nice to meet you, Dylan. I'm Heidi." Heidi shook his hand before grabbing her own bottle of local IPA.

"She's the one who's been doing all the reporting on the local arsonist," Ellie explained. "She's Mountain Springs' best journalist."

Heidi blushed. "Good gracious, no I'm not."

"I'm not really a news guy," Dylan said, something he should really keep to himself, "but I've actually been reading those articles."

"Well, it's pretty hot news," Heidi said, and then she laughed at her own ridiculous pun, and Ellie and Dylan laughed with her.

"How was your yoga class?" Heidi asked, and Ellie remembered she'd run into Heidi before attending Whisper's class.

"Actually, Whisper asked me to stop attending her classes until I come with a better energy or something."

Heidi nearly spit out her beer. She grasped her throat as she coughed. "You were kicked out?"

"Whisper told me I bring too much negativity into her class."

"Well, that Whisper is something else. I don't think she's even allowed to do that. You should come to my class. I would never dream of kicking someone out. And I have an old man farter who attends, and he is a joy. I welcome all."

"You know," Ellie said, the wine having already gone to her head. "I will go to your class. Just help me make sure I don't sit behind the old man farter."

"You should sit behind Ash. He's a recent college graduate, and he has a very nice ass, if I do say so myself. I'll be sure to make the class do a few downward facing dogs so you can get a long look." Heidi winked here, and Ellie felt very amused, especially since this conversation was leading them into the taboo sexual territory mothers typically avoided.

"That would probably make downward facing dogs tolerable for me."

"It's a plan!"

Ellie realized, right then, that she liked Heidi. She'd only talked to her a handful of times for a few minutes each time, but Heidi seemed so real. Ellie had always thought Heidi was just an old mom who'd accidentally gotten pregnant with her young daughter, and she'd dismissed her because of it. Now she realized: Heidi was a pretty cool chick.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ellie noticed Trina's husband, Phillip, looking suave in a satin gray button up shirt and dress pants. His hair, parted at the side, had probably been blow-dried into its position, and his teeth, fit for a model, had probably been freshly bleached for the night's events. Ellie had been introduced to him once before, but he was one of the more elusive Lake End husbands because his job often took him out of town. He owned an accounting firm in Denver, but he had a local office.

He approached Ellie with his sparkling smile, holding his hand out to greet her. "Ellie, my dear. It's so nice to see you here. Where's your husband?"

Heidi and Dylan started talking to each other, so Ellie suddenly found herself standing in a private group containing just her and Phillip. Phillip had taken Ellie's hand and was holding on to it, so she stood there, her hand in his, as she answered. "Unfortunately, our sitter backed out at the last minute, and Clay volunteered to stay home." She wished he would let go, feeling nothing less than extremely awkward.

"That's too bad. Our sitter's with the children in the guest house. I'm sure she would have been fine watching over an extra child."

"Oh, don't worry about it. Clay's granddaughter also needed a sitter." She pulled her hand away from him, and then put it up to her mouth, pretending to share a secret as she said, "Truthfully, I think Clay wanted to stay home with the kids."

Phillip donned a look of surprise. "His granddaughter? Oh yes, that's right. I heard his son had moved here. Is he the young man you arrived with?" He nodded toward Dylan, who had migrated even farther away and was now talking with Heidi and Gabby Swanson.

"Yes. That's Dylan." The polite thing to do would be to introduce him to Dylan, but Ellie didn't want to, wishing to get away from Phillip entirely.

"He's a good-looking kid."

Ellie wasn't sure what to say or do in response to this statement; she didn't want to admit she found Dylan good looking.

Phillip must have noticed her discomfort, because he changed the topic. "Can I show you something?"

Even though Ellie felt hesitant to be shown anything by Trina's husband, she accepted graciously and politely; he was the host of this party, after all, and rejecting his offer would be rude. She saw Trina eyeing them from across the room. The look Trina gave Ellie made Ellie even more worried, because Trina herself looked worried, despite her carrying on the conversation with the four Lake End moms surrounding her and sipping her champagne like everything was peachy. Why did she look worried?

Phillip showed Ellie into what appeared to be a library of some sort. The walls of the room had built-in shelves that were filled with hardcover books. The library led to another room, a study with a desk, and she followed Phillip into it. He closed the door behind them, and she looked at him, alarmed.

"What did you need to show me?" she asked, her worry affecting her speech. Why had he cornered her in this study? What would everyone think about the two of them being alone behind a closed door?

"What can you tell me about you and Dylan?"

"What do you mean?"

"What is your relationship with him like?"

She gulped. "He's nice. Clay is lucky to have him as a son. Why are you asking me this?"

Phillip actually laughed here. "This might come as a shock to you, but Trina was under the illusion Clay would leave you for her. She said some very nasty things to me, and she threatened to leave me for him. Just a couple weeks ago."

Ellie stood there, trying to keep her composure from crumpling.

Phillip studied her face, like he was waiting for her to break, and when she didn't, he continued. "Something changed, though. She's been doing everything she can to make things right between us. Because now, for some reason, she knows he won't leave you."

Still, Ellie said nothing.

He looked at her like he was trying to solve a puzzle, and for a moment, he looked puzzled. "Did you...know they were fucking? Are you the reason he stopped seeing her?"

Ellie tried to act surprised and hurt, suddenly realizing that maintaining a poker face probably wasn't the best idea. "No. I didn't know that. Are you sure?"

His puzzled look faded into a look of disbelief, like he knew she was lying. "I asked her, how could Clay possibly leave someone like you? You're gorgeous and delightful. She said something very interesting: that Clay's son offered to marry you when you became pregnant, that you would probably wind up with him. But I don't see it. You're an achiever, aren't you, Ellie? You wouldn't go for that mechanic out there, would you? And you wouldn't tarnish your reputation by getting with your son's big brother."

His words disgusted Ellie, made her feel disgusted of herself, because they had hints of truth and made her feel like a gold digger. But she wasn't a gold digger unless the "gold" was for Avery; she just wanted to be a Good Parent, she just wanted to be able to afford to give her kid a good life.

She felt dizzy. "I need to go."

Leaving the room abruptly, she tried to appear much calmer than she felt, and Phillip didn't try to hold her back. Unfortunately, Lana was eyeing the door to the library as she exited, and she gave Ellie a look that was both accusatory and satisfied, a look that Ellie knew meant she would gossip about this. I saw Ellie leaving the Smiths' library. She was in there with Phillip Smith for at least ten minutes. Something definitely happened between them. Can you believe she would seduce him at his own party, when Trina was right in the other room? She's never had the best moral compass. She's attracted to her stepson, after all.

Finding Dylan quickly, Ellie nudged him on the shoulder and whispered into his ear, "I have to get out of here."

As he looked at her, a worried expression formed on his face, and he nodded.

They saw Heidi on the way out, who gave them a concerned look, and Ellie shrugged and waved goodbye to her.