Summary

Olive goes out to find Ethan at her sister's request. In the moments of silence as she walks down the hallway she begins to reflect on how rough things have been for her lately. In the span of just two months Olive's roommate moved out, she had to find a new apartment, ended up overextending for a place that was more than she could afford, only to get laid off from the pharmaceutical company where she worked for six years. She blames her misfortune on her never-ending bad luck which she also cites as the reason that she hasn't heard back from the seven companies she has interviewed with in the past few weeks. To top it off, she laments about having to come face to face with her "nemesis" Ethan, "while wearing the shiny, flayed pelt of Kermit the Frog" (18).

Olive thinks back...