Previously…
– Samantha encouraged Tori to apply for the receptionist job at Objection Designs. When Tori told Zane that she had a job interview, she was vague about it.
– Landon wound up driving the Uber that Tori called to take her to the interview. A suspicious Zane followed her.
– Jason asked Sabrina for clarity on what went wrong at the end of their date. She felt it was time to confide in him about something in her past.

“Tempest has a bunch of vendor meetings back-to-back,” Jason Fisher says as he climbs the stairs up to the second story of Edge of Winter Arena, “so we should have some privacy.”

“Okay. Great,” Sabrina Gage says from a few feet behind him. 

Jason can hear the shakiness in her voice, and it makes him even more anxious about whatever she plans to share with him. Only a few minutes ago, they were in the parking lot outside the arena, where Jason asked Sabrina what went wrong at the conclusion of their date; she told him that, while she isn’t a virgin and that wasn’t a reason for her cutting the date short, there is something that she needs to tell him. 

He steps up onto the landing and opens the door, motioning for Sabrina to go in ahead of him. As she moves past him, he can almost feel the awkwardness radiating off her in waves. He tries to ignore it, something of which he might not have been capable 20 or even 10 years ago. He knows that he is interested in Sabrina, drawn to her, and that takes precedence over his own uneasiness or feelings of inadequacy. After a moment of gazing out over the blank ice surface, freshly serviced by the Zamboni, he steps into the office, too.

Sabrina stands awkwardly in the middle of the room, still clad in the ice-blue apron that is part of her uniform from Thaw Coffee & Tea. Jason gestures toward one of the chairs near his desk.

“Sit down,” he says. “Do you want a water or coffee or anything?”

She shakes her head. “No, thanks.”

He crosses to the opposite side of his desk and sits down in the executive chair. It strikes him as odd to have such an intimate, personal conversation in such a professional setting — and strangely takes him back to the days when he and Courtney started up this entire operation together. 

“What?” Sabrina asks, pulling him out of a daze that he didn’t even know he was in.

“Nothing,” he says hurriedly, and he pushes a smile across his face for emphasis. Most days, he is able to forget entirely how big a part of his and Courtney’s relationship this arena was, and vice-versa. It’s difficult for him to ignore how weird it is that he is now sitting here, across from a woman with the same name as the person who murdered Courtney on their wedding night. There’s no way he could have predicted any of this.

“I’m glad we’re talking,” he says as he refocuses on Sabrina and does everything he can to push other thoughts out of his mind.

“Me, too.” She seems to fold into her chair as she gathers her hands and her purse in her lap and her shoulders sink inward. “Sorry. I’m kind of nervous.”

“That’s okay. Nervous is okay. It’s part of–” He loses his words and waves his hand for a moment while he searches for new ones. “–whatever we’re doing.”

Sabrina looks up at him and almost blushes, as if the very idea of dating and relationships and sex is new to her. Which, based on what Jason does know, it all might be. Though she assured him minutes ago that she isn’t a virgin…

“I want to know you better,” Jason says. “That’s really all that matters. So whatever you want to tell me… this is a safe space. I promise.”

She offers a grateful half-smile. Jason waits as patiently as he can.

“Thanks,” Sabrina finally manages. “I just… I want you to know how silly I feel for running away right after our dinner. I felt silly while I was doing it, but I was scared.”

“That’s okay! I swear. All I want to know is, did I do something to make you book it like that? Because I want to apologize if I did. And I want to know how to avoid that next time — if there is a next time — and–“

Sabrina cuts him off with a little laugh, which catches Jason off-guard.

“What?” he asks. 

“Now I can tell that you’re nervous,” she says. “I promise, this isn’t your fault. All you did was ask me to keep hanging out.” 

“Okay. Then what’s going on? You said something happened to the last person you were with. If it’s because he did something to you–”

“Jason. That’s not it.” She spits out this rebuttal but then pauses, her body visibly tensing, before continuing: “It’s because of what I did to him.”

Tori Gray steps off the elevator onto the eighteenth floor of Winston Tower. Although she has visited this office several times in the past, she approaches the entrance to Objection Designs with a completely new perspective this time. The stark white wall bearing the company’s logo, set just behind an imposing reception desk, manages to be both understated and intimidating. Tori surveys the reception area itself, in a way that she has never looked at a reception area before — taking stock of all it entails and whether she could see herself behind that desk.

The current receptionist wears her hair in a tight ponytail and shows gleaming white teeth through an effortless pageant smile. Although Tori knows that the woman is going on maternity leave soon — hence this job interview — her black clothing and the height of the desk make it hard to see.

“Hi,” she says as she approaches the desk. “I’m here for an interview. Victoria Gray?”

A sparkle of recognition shows on the receptionist’s face. “Oh, hi! Let me tell H.R. that you’re here. You can have a seat right over there.”

“Thanks.” Tori retreats to one of several white leather chairs across the marble floor. Her heart thuds inside her chest as she casually sorts through the nearby stack of Vogue magazines from the past year. Even while she has the magazines in her hands, she is mentally reviewing the chat she had with Landon on the ride here, reminding herself of how to articulate her “greatest weakness” if the interviewer asks. 

She is lost in her thoughts until the clicking of stilettos and a familiar voice pulls her from them.

“I asked Arianna to tell me when you got here,” Molly Taylor says as she crosses the marble floor. Tori stands to greet her aunt — whose own pregnancy is now very apparent.

“Hi, Aunt Molly.” Tori quickly gives her a hug, and she goes along with Molly’s habit of cheek-kisses, as well. “I’d heard you were pregnant, but… wow.”

Molly laughs as she rests her hands on her expanding belly, which sits beneath a flowing blush-pink tunic. “Wow is right. I can hardly believe it myself.” 

“How are you feeling?” Tori asks. 

“Pretty well, all things considered. I’m tired all the time. I had a lot more energy when I was pregnant with the twins, I’ll tell you that much.”

“I’m sure. Thanks for letting me come in and interview. I hope it isn’t awkward or anything.”

“Awkward? Not at all. I’m staying out of the whole thing. I’d love to have you here, of course, but I trust H.R. to choose the best candidate.”

Tori knows that a friendly smile is the correct response, so she forces one over her face despite the nervous churning in her gut. 

“Well, I’m excited,” she says. “Working here would be so cool. I was just looking through the stack of Vogues and remembering how I’d always steal yours when I was little, any time I could…” 

“You did always love going through those and copying the outfits. You were so clever about it, the way you worked with whatever was around.”

The warmth of the memory momentarily helps to relax Tori. “Those were good times,” she says wistfully.

The sentimentality seems to get to Molly, too. She places a comforting hand on her niece’s shoulder.

“I’m glad to see that you’re doing well,” Molly says. “I’m sorry you’ve had such a rough go of things lately.”

Tori nods emphatically. “Things are good. Better than they’ve been in a long time.”

“Good.” After a sigh, Molly says, “I have a meeting in a few minutes. But I really wanted to see you and wish you luck. You’ve got my vote — not that I actually get one, but in spirit.”

“Thanks, Aunt Molly. And congratulations.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you soon,” Molly tells her, and with a final squeeze of Tori’s shoulder, Molly heads back through the glass doors, her heels tapping out a steady clack over the marble. 

Tori shares a final look with Arianna, the receptionist, and returns to her chair to wait — doing all that she can to push down her nerves as she envisions a life in which she gets to come to work here every day.

—–

Outside Winston Tower, Zane Tanaka fumes as he sits in the driver’s seat of his car. He didn’t plan to follow Tori today, but something about the way that she rushed out of the apartment set off alarm bells for him. He knows that Samantha referred her to a job opening at Objection, so the fact that she was so cagey about where she was interviewing was strange — and when he saw her get into the front seat of her Uber, he knew something must be going on.

After watching her go into the building, he lingers by the curb, waiting for the Honda Civic that dropped Tori off to pull away. But it doesn’t. The car sits in the loading zone for minutes, and finally, Zane’s impatience gets the best of him. He pulls out into traffic and drives by the Civic — and, when he glances through its driver’s-side window, it all begins to make sense… even though none of it really does.

Zane pulls away before Landon Esco sees him. 

“What the hell were you doing with him, Tori?” he mutters as he grips the steering wheel to pull around the corner. “And why are you lying to me?” 

—–

Jason sits up straight in his office chair. He waits for Sabrina to elaborate on what she just said — the ominous implications of it yanking his mind in all sorts of directions — but she remains silent, clearly weighted down by the vastness of whatever she has begun to confess.

“What did you do to him, Sabrina?” he finally prompts.

When she looks up from her lap, her big eyes are full of sadness. “The accident– the reason I was asleep for so long–” But she cuts herself off with a gasp.

“It was a car accident, right?” Jason asks. For as long as he has known Sabrina, he knows very little about the vegetative state in which she spent years, other than that she eventually awoke from it — and that it gave Shannon Parish the opportunity to steal Sabrina’s identity.

“He was driving,” she says, her expression turning glassy. 

“Who? The guy you were– involved with?”

She responds with a slow, bobbing nod. “Cody. We started dating in 11th grade. I thought we were going to get married.”

Jason sits back further. The chair squeaks as it reclines slightly.

“Did you get engaged?” he asks.

Sabrina shakes her head. “We talked about it. A lot. But that day we were driving…” She swallows the lump that has formed in her throat. 

He can see how painful this is for her. He doesn’t want to press her, but the tension is nearly unbearable.

“Sabrina, what happened?” he softly asks.

“That accident put me in a vegetative state for all those years,” she says, “but it was worse for Cody.”

“Cody… He died?”

“Yeah. And it was all my fault.”

—–

By the time Tori leaves the conference room where she met with two H.R. representatives, her nerves have subsided, or at least had their sharpest edges rounded down. She feels positive about most of the answers she gave during her interview, and when she returns to the lobby, she regards the reception desk more optimistically than before. She watches Arianna rise to greet another guest — a man perhaps a decade older than Tori, with dark hair and a slim-fitting, light gray suit worn over a blue shirt and pink tie.

“When are you due?” he asks Arianna cheerfully.

“Eight weeks left,” she says, glowing as she hands him a stamped parking ticket. “I can hardly believe it.”

“You must be so excited,” the man responds. “Your first?”

Arianna nods enthusiastically. “Excited and terrified!”

“I bet you’ll be a natural.”

“I hope so.” 

“King’s Bay seems like a great place to raise a family,” he says.

“It really does. Are you new to town?” Arianna asks.

“Pretty new. But I like what I’ve seen of it so far.”

The receptionist beams at him for a moment. “I’ll let H.R. know that you’re here. They’ll be out in a few.”

“Thank you so much,” he says before showing him to the same seat where Tori waited before her own interview.

As she observes from a distance, Tori’s stomach drops as she realizes that this is her competition for the job. He seems so poised, so effortlessly outgoing. Vivid memories of every time she hesitated or stumbled over her words during her interview flash through Tori’s mind. 

“Finn Campbell is here,” Arianna says into the phone behind the giant reception desk.

Tori averts her eyes as she hurries through the lobby and back toward the elevators.

—–

Powerful emotions threaten to overcome Sabrina as she sits across from Jason, struggling to find her words.

“What do you mean, it was your fault?” Jason asks gently.

“I mean that it was my fault,” she says, unable to conceal her agony. 

Jason draws in a cautious breath.

“It was our anniversary,” Sabrina explains. “We went out to dinner at the nicest restaurant in town. I thought…” She shakes her head, ashamed. “I thought he was going to propose to me.”

He finds himself studying her with fresh eyes — or, rather, with eyes that he hasn’t turned toward her in a long, long time. When she first appeared in town, calling herself Sabrina Gage, Jason was sure that she’d come to hurt him or his loved ones. It took a lot of time for him to see her as her own person, a kind person and not a threat. But the way she is talking now…

His gaze cuts toward the office door.

“What did you do?” he asks.

“I didn’t mean it,” she says as she begins to cry. “But while we were at dinner, he went to use the restroom… and he left his cell phone on the table. It started ringing. It was this girl, Amber, who we went to high school with. It went to his voicemail, and she called again, and I… I just knew.”

“He was cheating on you,” Jason says, imbuing the words with as much compassion as he can.

“I couldn’t bring myself to say anything at dinner. But I knew he wasn’t going to propose. Once we were in the car, going home, I… I couldn’t help myself.”

“Sabrina, what did you do?”

“I asked him. At first, that was all. I asked, and he denied it. So I asked to see his phone. He wouldn’t show it to me.” Her sobs grow heavier. “I reached over to grab it — I just wanted to see what else was in there. I wanted him to show me, but he wouldn’t, and–”

Jason closes his eyes, realizing exactly what happened. “And he crashed the car.”

“It happened so fast. He took his eyes off the road, and he started veering into the other lane, so I screamed, and he grabbed the wheel and…”

Sabrina breaks down crying.

“That was an accident,” Jason says. “You didn’t want him to crash. You didn’t try to make him crash.”

“No, but I was so selfish and stupid. I spent all those years in a hospital bed, barely even alive, and it was still wasn’t as bad as what happened to Cody.”

“It was an accident,” he repeats. He stands up and moves around the desk. “Sabrina, I’m so sorry.”

“I’m the reason he’s dead,” she says through tears. “Me!”

“That isn’t true.” But the overpowering sobs get the best of Sabrina, and she rocks hysterically in the chair. All Jason can do is place his arms around her and hold her tightly, pulling her toward him in the hope that he can offer her even the tiniest bit of comfort.

END OF EPISODE 1020

Was Sabrina’s secret anything like what you expected?
Does Tori still stand a chance at landing the job?
What will Zane do now that he knows Tori rode with Landon?
Talk about all this and more in the comments below!

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