Backstory
Sam Ortega is Riley Chen's closest friend in graduate school and the practical intelligence of their daily life together — the person who reads people the way Riley reads songs, who holds together the social web of the cohort, the radio station, and every room where Riley needs someone in her corner. Sam tells Riley the truth and tells it twice. She is also holding back the most consequential thing she has not said: there is a sound-engineering position in Los Angeles, and she has not said no. Her internal conflict is clean and painful — she is the kind of friend who believes in honesty, and telling Riley about the LA offer would change Riley's life at the moment Riley can least afford a change. Her loyalty leads her to keep Riley's secrets longer than she should. Her directness watches the silence around her own undisclosed decision grow and does not know which cut would cost more.
