Summary

Chapter Five opens with an email from Charlie who says he needs to share the tragedy of the bigfoot erotica without getting his work email flagged. Nora sends him her phone number before convincing Dusty to turn in part of her rough draft to her editor. She and Libby walk into town and she calls the city sleepy as Nora points out Mug + Shot. They arrive at Poppa Squats, but the server says their vegetarian food is lackluster. Dusty replies, thanking Nora for trusting her work process. However, Nora is surprised that the novel starts describing the main character, a film agent named Nadine Winters, as a shark. Nora sees the significant, negative similarities between herself and the character and, on the third reread, admits that the writing is good. Confused and tipsy, Nora stumbles into Charlie and crashes to the floor.

In...