How to End a Love Story

Thirteen years later, Helen is a writer, and she gets some good news: Her bestselling YA novels, The Ivy Papers, are being adapted for television. She struggles to accept that she has truly achieved such success, given the uncertainties of a creative career. Helen moves to a sumptuous studio-funded apartment in Los Angeles for the duration of the project. She hopes the change of scene will help end her writer’s block.

Coincidentally, Grant Shephard also lives in Los Angeles and works as a screenwriter. He tries to tell his agent that he does not want to work on The Ivy Papers, but he is won over by the prestige of the project. He looks up Helen’s biography, thinking how little he really knows her. Helen was serious and quiet in high school, and she openly resented her more gregarious peers. Grant decides to take the job, reflecting that if Helen Zhang has a problem with him being on the project, she can take it up with a lawyer.

Helen is about to meet Suraya, who will head the new show. She is impressed by Suraya’s resume. Before the meeting, she thinks about how her friends in New York seem to have lost interest in her. Helen reflects that her anxieties about friendship would probably be less acute if Michelle were alive.

Suraya immediately compliments Helen’s books and creativity, welcoming her presence in the writers’ room. Suraya urges her not to worry if the creative process is sometimes tense. She also tells her that she will meet the other writers at dinner the following day and warns her that television writing rooms can be surprisingly intimate. Helen takes all this in and avoids showing any anxiety.

Meanwhile, Grant is dreading seeing Helen again. When she walks into the restaurant for dinner, he takes her in as the table of screenwriters cheers, realizing that she “looks intimidating […] and grown-up” (17). When Helen notices him, she sharply informs the table that she and Grant know each other from high school.

Helen is furious that Grant will be working directly under Suraya. After dinner, she finds herself alone with Grant and tells him to quit. Grant calmly refuses, telling her she has no right to dictate his career decisions because of his inadvertent role in Michelle’s death. Helen furiously reminds him he is nevertheless responsible for it and is satisfied to see that this accusation hurts him. Grant tells her to go to Suraya if she is serious about her concerns.

Grant leaves, and Helen tries to socialize with the others. Helen realizes that as angry as she is at Grant, it might jeopardize her standing on the show to disrupt its staffing. She decides this is a chance to prove she is superior to Grant morally and creatively.

Grant arrives home and has a panic attack from the shock of seeing Helen. He dials an ex-girlfriend for support, and she pityingly tells him he should find other outlets. Grant admits to himself that he finds it difficult to open up with others. As he struggles to sleep, he dwells on his guilt over Michelle’s death and resolves to be kinder to Helen.

Helen also can’t sleep that night. She scours Michelle’s digital archive, desperate for a suicide note that will somehow explain why her sister felt so much despair. Helen’s novels contain a similar, but more successful, search for old correspondence. Helen has spent years searching for closure.

Grant and Helen have an awkward lunch together at his request. Helen is upset that he hasn’t quit. She privately thinks he is too handsome and popular to be a writer. Grant suggests they need boundaries about what to discuss, especially as writers’ rooms can involve mining people’s personal life for material. She tells him they will never discuss her sister. Privately, she admits she has always wondered how he feels about Michelle’s death, even admitting it was likely difficult for him. She tells Grant she is open to discussing any topic but rebuffs his attempts to talk about other memories of high school that might help them collaborate. Grant is privately frustrated and still struggling with guilt. He tries to get Helen to open up about herself and her writing, but he fails. He dreads the weeks ahead.

Later, Helen talks to her mother on the phone. She thinks of how her parents would feel if they knew that she is working with Grant. She feels her usual desire to protect them while resenting their tendency to try to manage her life for her. She knows she could capitalize on Grant’s guilt and feels a sense of power because of the information she is keeping from her parents.

On her first day at the writers’ room, Helen warms when Suraya praises her work. However, she is horrified when Grant tells the rest of the writing team to embrace the emotionality of the work and their own vulnerabilities; he proceeds to set the tone by describing a sexual dream he once had about his own mother. The other writers quickly reciprocate his frankness with their own stories.

Grant takes in Helen’s discomfiture. His favorite part of his work is observing how personal anecdotes can give way to open discussions of realistic character behavior. He appreciates a working atmosphere where he understands his colleagues’ vulnerabilities.

Helen feels increasingly awkward with the other writers and resents Grant’s skill with the group as it reminds her of how he was one of the popular kids in high school. When Grant offers to give her advice, she is rude to him, spurring them to curse at each other. Grant immediately apologizes, saying he hoped their relationship would improve. Helen tells him all she needs from him is space. Grant, obviously upset, agrees. Helen is miserable in the aftermath, reminding herself she simply needs to succeed on the show to return to her old life.

As they work on the next scene, Helen and Grant spar over the pace of the story, and she tries to assert author’s prerogative. Grant takes Suraya aside and says that Helen is a hindrance in the room, partly due to her personal animosity toward him. Suraya tells him he may be letting the past color his views. So, Grant decides to retreat to unflappable professionalism and collegiality toward Helen.

As the weeks go on, Helen continues to resent Grant’s easy rapport with the other writers and his unyielding calm with her. Suraya takes her aside to discuss her animosity toward Grant, and Helen is mortified. She tries to assure Suraya that there is nothing wrong, but Suraya tells her there are obviously problems. The next day, Suraya announces a mandatory camping retreat for the team. Grant seems unfazed, which adds to Helen’s resentment.