Read the premise. Here are three maps that all preserve the binding spine (opening-night offer → Turn 1 at week 3 → midpoint kiss/offer/showcase announcement → Turn 3 nephew rupture → private confession → showcase coda → Odile's reveal at/just after → June stays), but differ in rhythm, POV economy, cohort function, rupture timing, and how the ending is shaped.

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## Map 1 — "The Syllabus"
**Clockwork Tuesday spine, strict alternation, even cohort drip**

**Count & word logic:** 25 chapters × ~3,200 avg ≈ 80k. Two-chapter overture, then the eight Tuesdays as a visible calendar — most weeks get a class chapter plus one or two between-week chapters. Strict June/Theo alternation (June odd, Theo even), so each secret gets re-aired every ~6,400 words.

**Rupture timing:** discovery midweek after Tuesday 6; June misses week 7 entirely; confession at the diner before week 8.

| Ch | POV | One-line |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | J | Opening night on Orchard Street — June says goodbye to *Winter Kitchen*; Odile's public "mistake" and unrefusable offer. |
| 2 | T | The stockroom ask — eight Tuesdays of pretending; what Theo conspicuously doesn't say about his surname. |
| 3 | J | Tuesday 1, gesture drawings — bad at something publicly; cohort intake at the diner, cover story improvised under fire. |
| 4 | T | Midweek at the gallery — backstory rehearsal; Odile's pointed non-questions (reread seed). |
| 5 | J | Tuesday 2, blind contour — permission to stare; first borrowed scarf from the long-married wife. |
| 6 | T | Archive day with the framers; Theo catches himself drawing on a napkin for the first time in years. |
| 7 | J | Tuesday 3, paint your partner from memory — **Turn 1**; her canvas proves how much of him she's already filed away. |
| 8 | T | Same critique from his side; walking her home; the ledger of people they're now lying to. |
| 9 | J | Cohort weekend errand-becomes-outing; "the young couple" becomes a job they're assigned; focal: long-married pair. |
| 10 | T | Tuesday 4, partner's hands; after-class dinner — **the cover kiss neither of them performs**. |
| 11 | J | The out-of-town offer arrives — studio share plus steady work, starts the week after the showcase; it's good and she knows it. |
| 12 | T | Theo nearly confesses to Odile during a de-install; she changes the subject with surgical timing (reread seed). |
| 13 | J | Tuesday 5, traded memories; **Odile announces the couples showcase** — the fake gets an expiry date the real feelings don't. |
| 14 | T | Gallery walk with the new-ish couple; Theo admits to himself he stopped pretending weeks ago. |
| 15 | J | Midweek — June paints alone for the first time in years; the third couple's conversation about labels lands close to the bone. |
| 16 | T | Tuesday 6, **paint what your partner is afraid of** — his painting of her is too accurate to be performance. |
| 17 | J | **Turn 3** — returning a borrowed something to the gallery, she sees the small, undeniable thing (a labeled family photo in Odile's hand); she stops coming. |
| 18 | T | Tuesday 7, one painter at a two-person canvas; the cohort's unasked questions; Odile's silence (reread: she never asks where June is). |
| 19 | J | June packs and ships nothing; the fear painting leans in her hallway and won't be unseen. |
| 20 | T | Theo clears the archive table and paints — June at *Winter Kitchen* — his first finished piece in years. |
| 21 | J | The diner booth — the painting, the plain double confession, both lies on the table; they decide to finish the joint piece. |
| 22 | T | After-hours in the studio finishing the joint canvas; deciding what the class deserves to hear. |
| 23 | J | Tuesday 8, showcase, first snow — the work on the walls; the truth to the class, met warmly. |
| 24 | T | The emptying gallery — **Odile's reveal: there was no mistake, night one**; her blessing doubles as his discharge papers. |
| 25 | J | Coda — June declines the offer and keeps her keys: for herself, with him, in that order; snow on Second Avenue. |

**Why it produces momentum:** The countdown is always visible — the reader can feel exactly how many Tuesdays are left, and the assignment ladder does the escalation work for free. Strict alternation means double dramatic irony every other chapter: the reader holds Theo's secret through every June chapter and June's growing feelings through every Theo chapter, so even quiet weeks are charged.

**Biggest structural risk:** Metronome flatline. Equal-sized weekly boxes can make the midpoint and the rupture feel *scheduled* rather than seismic, and weeks 1–2 and 4–5 risk an "assignment of the week" episodic rhythm. The fix has to come from varying chapter interiors, because the architecture itself won't vary.

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## Map 2 — "Borrowed Scarves"
**Cohort-immersion front half, accelerating back half, asymmetric POV with Theo as rationed detonator**

**Count & word logic:** 28 chapters, variable length 1,900–4,000 words. Act one: 11 chapters ≈ 31k (luxuriates). Act two: 11 chapters ≈ 30k. Act three: 6 chapters ≈ 19k (sprints). POV split ~19 June / 9 Theo — Theo's chapters are placed sparingly so each one detonates the irony, and his share rises in act three as his agency arc takes the pen.

**Rupture timing:** discovery the *same night* as Tuesday 6, riding the high of the fear assignment — the longest, coldest rupture of the three maps (three consecutive June-solo chapters with Theo's POV deliberately withheld).

| Ch | POV | One-line |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | J | Opening night; goodbye to *Winter Kitchen*; the offer she can't refuse because it's *Odile*. |
| 2 | J | The ask, from June's side — "Theo," no surname offered, a stranger as trapped as she is (she believes). |
| 3 | T | First detonator — locking up while Odile climbs to the studio: the reader learns whose nephew he is and what he didn't say. |
| 4 | J | Tuesday 1, gesture drawings; diner initiation — all three couples drawn fast and warm. |
| 5 | J | Cover-story homework over dumplings; she catches herself enjoying the fiction. |
| 6 | J | Tuesday 2, blind contour; the long-married pair adopt them; the first borrowed scarf. |
| 7 | T | Detonator — Odile invents a courier errand that throws Theo and June together (reread: the errand was unnecessary). |
| 8 | J | Cohort weekend at the flea market; the group chat; the lie now load-bearing for six other people. |
| 9 | J | Tuesday 3, **Turn 1** — paint your partner from memory; she's memorized his patience, his hands, her own coffee order in his mouth. |
| 10 | T | His canvas of her, same night; walking home; the itemized cost of lying to friends. |
| 11 | J | Act-one button — gallery walk where June defends a painting like someone who still lives here. |
| 12 | J | Tuesday 4, hands; the after-class dinner — **the cover kiss neither performs**. |
| 13 | J | The offer arrives — studio share and steady work, starting the week after the showcase; not a strawman, and that's the problem. |
| 14 | T | Theo's night-shift spiral; he almost tells Odile everything; she declines to hear it (reread seed). |
| 15 | J | Tuesday 5, traded memories; **the showcase announced** — an expiry date set against feelings that don't have one. |
| 16 | J | June paints a portfolio for the offer and notices staying has started to feel like a choice, not loitering. |
| 17 | J | Cohort dinner — the third couple on categories and what you owe an audience; it lands harder than they intend. |
| 18 | T | Theo drawing in earnest again; he resolves to tell her after the showcase — the exactly wrong deadline. |
| 19 | J | Tuesday 6, **paint what your partner is afraid of** — his painting of her is too knowing; she leaves class raw and lit up... |
| 20 | J | ...**Turn 3, same night** — returning his jacket to the gallery, the back-office wall of family photos, Odile's handwriting; she walks home alone. |
| 21 | J | Rupture — packed boxes, dodged group chat, scarves returned by mail; the asymmetry argued out in her own head. |
| 22 | J | She skips Tuesday 7; the offer paperwork unsigned on the table under the *Winter Kitchen* postcard. |
| 23 | T | Theo's pen at last — week 7 alone at the joint canvas; the cohort's worry; Odile's silence. |
| 24 | T | He makes the one thing that's ever been his: June at *Winter Kitchen*, finished; he asks her for ten minutes and a bench. |
| 25 | J | Tompkins Square bench, bad deli coffee — she arrives having already declined the offer that morning, *for herself*; then the painting, then the plain confession. |
| 26 | T | The all-nighter finishing the joint piece; she tells him the order of her reasons, and he understands it matters. |
| 27 | J | Tuesday 8, showcase, first snow; the truth to the class, met with laughter instead of judgment. |
| 28 | T | Emptying gallery — **Odile's reveal**: no mistake, and no couples-only rule before that night; her blessing; snow on Orchard Street. |

**Why it produces momentum:** Warmth as debt. Front-loading the cohort means every later lie has a face and a borrowed scarf attached, so the middle tightens even when nothing "happens." Rationing Theo to nine chapters makes each of his appearances a guilt spike, and withholding his POV entirely during the rupture makes the reader feel June's silence the way he does. The shrinking act sizes (31k → 30k → 19k) are an accelerator pedal built into the page count.

**Biggest structural risk:** Theo arrives underbuilt at his own climax. With nine chapters, his assistant-to-maker arc has very little interiority to stand on, so the act-three handoff to his POV can feel like a different book starting at chapter 23. Secondary: eleven chapters before the kiss demands real slow-burn discipline — if the cohort material doesn't compound, act one reads as charming stall.

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## Map 3 — "Hanging the Show"
**Showcase-night frame with artifact-titled interstitials; latest-possible rupture; double-exposure midpoint**

**Count & word logic:** 29 chapters ≈ 80k — seven short present-tense interstitials at the showcase (June POV, ~1,200 each ≈ 8k) threaded through 22 flashback chapters (~3,250 avg ≈ 72k). The frame opens with the paintings already on the walls — including one canvas turned to face the wall — and withholds two things: whether June is staying, and what's on that canvas. The final interstitial overruns the frame into the emptying gallery.

**Rupture timing:** discovery the morning *after* Tuesday 7's first joint session — the latest allowable, keeping the warm middle unbroken longest, then a short, steep rupture measured in days; the confession is crammed into showcase week.

| Ch | POV | One-line |
|---|---|---|
| I-1 | J, now | Showcase doors about to open; first flakes outside; eight weeks on the walls; one canvas faced to the wall. |
| F1 | J | September: *Winter Kitchen*, the goodbye, the mistake, the offer. |
| F2 | T | The ask; eight Tuesdays; what he doesn't say and tells himself doesn't matter yet. |
| F3 | J | Tuesday 1, gesture drawings; the cohort; the diner. |
| I-2 | J, now | The long-married couple's joint piece — their hands — and what the wall label can't say about forty years. |
| F4 | T | Midweek archive; Odile's non-questions (reread seed). |
| F5 | J | Tuesday 2, blind contour; permission to stare; the borrowed scarf. |
| F6 | J | Tuesday 3, **Turn 1** — memory portraits; what they'd each memorized without permission. |
| F7 | T | Walking home from week 3; they are now lying to friends, and the friends are now theirs. |
| I-3 | J, now | The new-ish couple's piece; June clocking how far everyone in this room traveled in eight weeks. |
| F8 | J | The cohort weekend outing; "the young couple," assigned and accepted. |
| F9 | J | Tuesday 4, hands; the dinner; **the cover kiss — take one**. |
| F10 | T | **The kiss — take two**: same scene, his ledger of everything in it that wasn't performance (double-exposure pair). |
| F11 | J | The offer arrives, and it's good; the expiry date enters the room. |
| F12 | T | Theo's near-confession to Odile; her surgically timed subject change (reread seed). |
| I-4 | J, now | Odile working the showcase room — first pass reads as pride; reread as a conductor taking her bow. |
| F13 | J | Tuesday 5, traded memories; **the showcase announced**. |
| F14 | J | Painting alone again; the city quietly auditioning to keep her. |
| F15 | T | The third couple and Theo on categories that are nobody's business; what you owe people you lie to kindly. |
| F16 | J | Tuesday 6, **paint what your partner is afraid of** — too knowing; the most dangerous Tuesday survived, she thinks. |
| I-5 | J, now | Her own fear-painting on the wall with her name beside it — the hardest thing she's ever let hang. |
| F17 | J | Tuesday 7, the joint piece begins — one canvas, two painters, closest they've ever stood. |
| F18 | J | **Turn 3, next morning** — early at the studio to work, the small undeniable thing (Odile mid-sentence — "tell your mother—" — before seeing June); she puts down the brush and leaves. |
| F19 | T | The abandoned canvas; a week of unanswered texts; Odile's silence. |
| F20 | J | Mid-packing; half the joint piece is hers; the offer starts in eight days. |
| F21 | T | Theo paints her — first finished work in years — and asks for one diner booth, ten minutes. |
| F22 | J | The booth, two nights before the showcase — the painting, the plain double confession, and an all-nighter to finish the joint piece. |
| I-6 | J, now | The faced-to-the-wall canvas turned around — Theo's painting of June; the class learns the truth, warmly. |
| I-7 | J, now | The emptying gallery — **Odile's reveal: no mistake, night one, a rule invented for them**; June says she's staying — for herself, with him; snow. |

**Why it produces momentum:** The frame converts cozy inevitability into propulsion. The genre guarantees they end up together; this map makes the *open questions* structural instead — who's staying, what's on the hidden canvas, how a rupture the interstitials only hint at got healed in time for the paint to dry. Every interstitial is a promissory note the next flashback run pays down, the cohort is met twice (as finished portraits, then as people), and the book literally performs its own reread of Odile before the reveal names it. Pushing Turn 3 past week 7 keeps the warm middle intact longest, then drops the floor with almost no runway — which the frame has been promising all along.

**Biggest structural risk:** Frame leakage. If the interstitials show one beat too much ease between June and Theo, the rupture reads as pre-solved and acts two and three deflate; the interstitials must be engineered to stay truthful while withholding (the faced-away canvas and June's unstated decision carry that load). Secondary: present-tense gallery-walking can tip literary-clever against the book's warm register, and the double-exposure kiss chapter is dead weight unless Theo's take adds genuinely new information.

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**Quick differentiation check:** Map 1 is the linear clock with even cohort drip and the reveal/stay decision as separate closing beats; Map 2 front-loads the cohort, starves Theo's POV until act three, ruptures earliest and longest, and locks June's stay-decision *before* the confession; Map 3 ruptures latest and shortest, distributes the showcase coda across the whole book via the frame, and withholds the stay-decision until the final page. All three keep the confession private and pre-showcase, the showcase as coda, and Odile's reveal unstated until the end.
