Blake narrates that two weeks have passed since Krista found lipstick on his shirt. He never confronted Whitney, but a knowing look from her the next day and the cessation of his rash after using a dry cleaner convinced him she tampered with both the laundry and the lipstick. His relationship with Krista has improved but remains fragile, and he senses she is worried about him.

On his walk home from work, Blake receives a call from Malcolm, which he attributes to Krista’s influence since she is out with Becky. Malcolm insistently proposes getting drinks. Blake tries to deflect, but Malcolm presses for a date, and Blake redirects the venue from a bar near his old firm to Cooper’s on the Upper West Side. Blake ends the call feeling drained from his low-level, exhausting temp work.

Upon entering the apartment, Blake finds Whitney in the living room dressed up, possibly for a date. She applies a bold red lipstick that Blake recognizes as the same shade found on his shirt collar. Confronted, Whitney dodges his questions and smiles sweetly, provoking him.

Blake calls Whitney despicable, implying she planted the lipstick and tampered with the laundry. Whitney denies wrongdoing and shifts to taunting him about his new job, alluding to what happened at his last company. The insinuation alarms Blake; he never told her why he was fired and wonders how she could know.

When Blake grabs for her wrist to stop her, Whitney shakes him off, tells him he looks terrible, and leaves. The encounter rattles Blake, who is already worn down by lack of sleep and stress. He fixates on Whitney’s comment about his job and starts to fear that her moving in was not coincidence.

The chapter ends with Blake’s escalating paranoia: he considers that Whitney might have orchestrated her tenancy to target him from the start and has been actively working to undermine him.