Lauren Ellison

Lauren grew up on the North Carolina coast and moved to Charlotte at twenty-four for her first on-air job. At twenty-eight, her fiancé called off the wedding a month after the first scan and moved out of state. She kept the apartment, crossed the date off the calendar, and planned the rest alone. Now twenty-nine and seven months pregnant, she does the morning forecast and goes home to thin walls and silence. The city recognizes her face everywhere she goes. Her parents call often from the coast, warm and steady. The loneliness is worse than the breakup, and she will only admit it to someone who stays past dawn without asking anything of her.