They both thrived on momentum, certain the future would keep accelerating in their favor. But momentum cuts both ways. Lucas’s start-up hit a cash-flow crunch, forcing him into sixty-hour weeks and 2 a.m. investor calls that left him strung out.
At the same time, Tessa’s agency landed a national sports-drink account that demanded near-constant travel. Missed dinners morphed into clipped texts; clipped texts sprouted into confrontations about priorities. The final spark came when Lucas discovered a hotel-bar photo of Tessa laughing next to a male colleague on an industry blog.