Best Offer Wins

Dottie tells Margo her story. She took several courses with Curtis and knew him well. When his book was about to be published, he called her into his office and thanked her for inspiring its first chapter. He asked her to read it right there. She did, and discovered that it was a paper she’d turned in during one of their previous courses. Stunned and angry, she left without saying anything. His father, for whom she briefly worked, called her the next day and offered to pay her student loans and give her $50,000 for her silence.

She took the offer but remained anxious and upset for the duration of the semester. She began self-medicating with alcohol, attending parties she wouldn’t normally be interested in. At one, she was drugged and sexually assaulted. After that, she left school and settled in the most remote place she could find. She likes her life now. She does occasionally get upset that Curtis derailed her entire future, but mostly she tries to lay low.

Floored, Margo asks if Dottie will share the paper that Curtis plagiarized with her. Dottie tells Margo she will have to think about it.

Margo returns home to find a strange cell phone on the counter. It’s a flip phone, a burner like the ones used on The Wire. The first message is from someone who claims to have had a good night with Ian the night before and was happy to meet Fritter. Stunned, Margo realizes that Ian may be just as adept at deceit as she is. She hides the phone so that she can look through its contents later just before Ian walks in with Fritter. She detects a hint of tension in his movement and wonders what exactly he is hiding from her. He offers to make her pancakes, and she asks what he did last night. He claims to have had a quiet night with his friend Brant, and Margo thinks back to other nights recently when he also claimed to have been seeing Brant. The night of their fight he told her that he fell asleep on Brant’s sofa.

Margo is sure that he is lying and is flabbergasted that he could have been keeping his infidelity from her. She asks a few follow-up questions and Ian shares that Brant has a new girlfriend. When Margo asks her name, he responds “Alex” quickly. She realizes that he had this name ready, should he be asked about it.

As they are talking, she gets a text from Dottie. Her cover is blown: Dottie was unable to find evidence of her on Georgetown’s website and is refusing to share her paper.

From the phone, Margo learns that Ian’s secret girlfriend is named Alex, the name he’d given her when she asked about Brant’s new girlfriend. They have been sleeping together for nearly two months and meet at Alex’s house, usually during work hours. She regularly sends him nude selfies: She is thin, young, and beautiful.

Margo’s rage mounts as the days pass and she has to go through the motions with Ian, sleeping next to him and eating with him, all the while ruminating on the fact that she could probably kill him without remorse. She begins following Ian and observes him with Alex. She spied on him once before, right after they met. At the time he had a girlfriend with whom he’d been unhappy for awhile. Their interactions had seemed stale, but Ian was genuinely considerate with her. He and Alex, by contrast, do not seem to have a meaningful connection.

Margo wants a baby, and the house, too badly to give up on Ian. She needs a husband and father, even if the one she has is no longer someone she likes. Plotting, she calls the real estate agent that Erika used and speaks to him about the house.

Margo waits for Curtis in his office, noticing wryly that he has his zoom camera pointed toward a bookshelf featuring a copy of his book, facing out so that its full cover is visible. She is sure that his messy desk is the result of artful arrangement. Curtis is, she scoffs, a walking cliché.

When he arrives, he is stunned to find her there. Margo gets right to the point. She claims to have Dottie’s paper as well as copies of his father’s wire transfer to her. She has enough details about the situation that Curtis believes her, and she can tell that he has begun to panic when she threatens to tell everything to his new employers. She explains that she expects to send over an offer on the house and have it signed and returned before the house goes on the market.

Curtis asks for more time: He will have to think of something to tell Jack because Jack doesn’t know about the plagiarism. Reluctantly, Margo agrees. They decide that Curtis and Jack will accept their offer immediately after the house goes on the market, in two days’ time.

Ian comes home from work. Margo re-hid the burner phone after reading all of its messages, and she is fairly certain that Ian remains unaware of her subterfuge. She broaches the topic of the house, explaining that she would still like to put in an offer. Ian stiffens and argues that they aren’t going to get the house now and that fixating on it is unhealthy for Margo and for their relationship.

Margo feels her anger mounting and reveals everything she knows about Alex. Ian begins crying and apologizes, assuring Margo that Alex means nothing to him. She is a young environmentalist and the two hit it off after she asked him about internships at the EPA. He begs for her forgiveness. This is exactly the response Margo was hoping for, and she proceeds with the next phase of her plan: She agrees not to leave Ian but stipulates that they put an offer in on the house if she tries to forgive and forget. They need, she argues, a fresh start. Ian agrees.

Margo reads the house’s listing, salivating over the details, even though they are familiar to her already. She has their new agent Derrick fax over their offer although, troublingly, he does tell her that Jack and Curtis decided to wait until after the weekend to begin reviewing offers.

Although she would like to refresh her email constantly all day long, she has an important work function for one of her firm’s most important clients. She is expected to be on-site and in constant communication with Jordana, the rest of the team, and the influencers whose content will promote the hotel and restaurant.

She does eventually receive a text from Curtis: He tells her that he needs proof to show to Jack. He is calling her bluff. She responds that if he tests her, she’ll publicize the information that she has. She is not sure if he believes her or not. When she and Ian hear from their agent later, the news is not good: Curtis and Jack will not review their offer until after the weekend.

Margo feels sore and achy and wonders when she last had her period. She takes a pregnancy test, which is positive. This is not part of the plan. She cannot have a baby while they still live in a cramped apartment.

As she contemplates her predicament, she looks out the window. She sees Ian ride up on his bicycle, and then she sees Alex getting out of a car, looking disheveled and upset. At first, Ian appears to tell her to stay back, but then Alex runs up to him. She can only see Alex’s face, but whatever Ian says appears to pacify her. Margo is livid. He must still be lying to her.

Margo brings Natalie to the open house, even though she finds Natalie increasingly obnoxious and unbearable to be around. Sure enough, Natalie criticizes home ownership and marriage, but Margo bites her tongue. Hit by a wave of nausea, Margo sends Natalie into the house to do a walk-through while she checks on something outside.

Margo comes home to find Ian sitting on the couch. She is filled with resentment and revulsion, but she reveals nothing. He has to go back to Pittsburgh, apparently, and they talk about the house and their work schedules.

Then, Margo pops into Natalie’s apartment wearing latex gloves. She greets Fritter and recalls Blossom, the dog she found when she was young. Her mother wasn’t sure if she would be able to keep Blossom, as dogs weren’t allowed in their building, but Blossom had been quiet enough that Margo hoped everything would work out. However, as soon as school started, her father sold Blossom. He figured out that she was a purebred Cairn terrier, and $300 was more important to him than Margo’s happiness.