- After the death of his beloved fiancée, a man reads her diary and finds out that she was having an affair with a young construction worker.
- Jake, following the suicide of his girlfriend Alex, seeks answers through her diaries as to why she did it. Jake discovers that although she loved him, she felt as if there was something lacking and when she met Thomas (who did construction work and sold shoes), she pursued him and it wasn't long before she was having an affair with him, doing things that she didn't do with Jake.—rcs0411@yahoo.com
- Jake Winters is devastated at the funeral of his fiancée. An older lady, Martha, tells him to speak with her when he feels like it. Jake returns to his luxury loft, where his fiancée's voice is still recorded on the answering machine. Jake distractedly pets his dog, Stella, and plays with a basketball, knocking over some building blocks from his architect job.
When he starts putting things in bags, he finds his fiancée's red diary. He sits down to read it. He remembers her smiling, full of life, and dancing on her own all the time. Jake reading her diary is intercut with flashbacks of his fiancée, Alex. Alex is seen in a red shawl and a pair of boots, dancing with Stella all around the loft. She recalls how happy Jake made her in the six months they've been together. The couple are shown running around in a park where a Mexican wedding party is taking place at an outdoor garden nearby. Out of sight from the crowds, Jake and Alex kiss and fool around. In a voiceover, Alex says she wants a secret, a mystery in her life, something which will be hers and hers alone.
One day, Alex goes to see her optometrist for an eye irritation. The optometrist tells her she must wear a temporary eye patch. Instead of asking Jake to pick her up, she decides to walk home. She is amused by comments from passersby on the street who assume her eye patch is the result of a domestic argument, and that she should retaliate. Distracted, Alex can't see another driver who honks at her. She falls into the arms of a handsome construction worker. Attraction between the two is apparent.
In the present, a distraught Jake puts down the diary, uncertain if he can read further. When he goes to the bathroom, he realizes there's a blood stain on the floor. He tastes it in his mouth. In Alex's diaries, she talks of her infatuation with the unnamed blue-collar worker and notes he has a perfect body, saying that there's no competition between him and Jake. Alex decides to follow the worker around one afternoon and takes the same bus as him. It turns out the man works a second job as a shoe salesman. Alex enters the shop and says she is looking for shoes. The man thinks he recognizes her, but she denies it. He shows her a pair of 7-and-a-half-sized red high-heeled shoes. They are clearly drawn to each other, and they admit it's irrational. When Alex buys the shoes, the man gives her his address.
Meanwhile, Jake plays basketball by himself in his apartment. Jake remembers a particular time in which he and Alex made love after she took a bath in their tub. He then goes to look for the red shoes in desperation. Instead of working on a design plan he's been assigned, Jake keeps on reading the diary, even though it hurts him. At night, his work colleague Paul honks his car outside Jake's loft and laments that their customers are asking questions. He shouts that what happened to Jake was horrible, but that he must move on from his loss.
Alex wants to forget about the construction worker and goes to see Jake at his work site, but he is occupied with work. That night, she gives in to temptation and goes to the blue-collar man's address. Alex is wearing a business coat, her red shoes and a short lace nightgown. After some conversation where Alex tells him he doesn't know anything about her, the man says "I know you're beautiful. You wear two-hundred-dollar shoes. And you are with someone who doesn't make you happy." Alex replies he's wrong and that her partner makes her too happy. After some charged banter, she asks him to tear her clothes off and they make love violently. On another occasion, she shows up at his place disguised with a wig. However, Alex starts to feel wracked with guilt for her infidelity and does not contact the man for two weeks.
Alex is at her interior design job when the man visits her unannounced, saying he wants more of her. She insists she wants distance between them and would prefer if she didn't know his name, but the guy presses on and says his name is Tom, with his full name being Thomas K. Butler. He shares other details about his life, like how he was named after his father. After his dad died, his mom began calling him Tom. He later had to give up a football scholarship for college in order to support his brothers. Tom tells Alex she is the best thing that's ever happened to him and their relationship is not over. After leaving her office, he joins a game of street basketball outside. As Alex watches Tom, she remarks she now has no place to hide from her fling and feels trapped.
Alex's girlfriends throw her a party for her 26th birthday, but she begins to feel isolated from them. Alex tells her co-worker she didn't show up to work earlier that day because she had the flu, and her co-worker says that she explained to her brother who keeps calling the office that Alex isn't feeling well. Alex knows it is Tom calling pretending to be her brother, and is worried when her co-worker admits she gave Alex's phone number to him. Jake has his own celebration with Alex and has her bust open a piñata. Inside the piñata is a ring; Jake asks her to marry him. She doesn't seem to want to give an answer straight away, and says there's still a lot Jake doesn't know about her, particularly her history of self-destructive behavior. Jake reassures that it doesn't matter and he loves her, whatever her flaws may be.
Alex brings Jake to a ballet studio to inform her mother, Martha, of her engagement. Martha is condescending to the couple and is not impressed with Jake being an architect. She tells him that Alex's father was a "cocksucker" and proceeds to ask him intrusive questions about whether he's a patient, good lover. On the way home with Jake, a mortified Alex gets out of the car. Jake tells her he's not bothered by her mother's comments and prods her about what she is so afraid of.
At the shoe store, Tom receives a telegram and signs the receipt of the messenger. The telegram is a letter from Alex asking him to meet her a hotel. When the couple meet, Alex has clearly been drinking. She breaks the news that she's getting married and she can't see Tom anymore. Tom shouts at her that he doesn't want to give her up. She slaps him and pushes him away, while admitting that she wants him; he wants to go on with their relationship. They make love passionately.
Alex returns home in a drunken haze. Over the next few days, her mental state deteriorates as she continues to drink. She feels she doesn't deserve Jake and is angry at herself for not stopping the affair. She gets into the bathtub wearing only a black négligée and removes her engagement ring. Eventually she slits her wrist with a razor.
In the present, Jake resolves to visit Tom at the shoe store with his dog Stella in tow. He does not tell Tom who he is and simply asks for some red shoes as a gift to his girlfriend, but Tom says he sold his last pair. He later follows Tom to a bar where he tries to chat him up for friendly conversation. Jake makes a bet with Tom for $1,000 that he can beat him at one-on-one basketball. Marlene, Jake's new lady friend, is also at the bar with her girlfriends and sees Jake. Jake encourages the women to come watch him and Tom play basketball at his place. During the game, Tom is losing, but he's a hit with the ladies, and Jake becomes increasingly angry. The match gets hectic while the girls cheer on. Jake breaks Tom's nose and the two get into a fist fight. The women unsuccessfully try to stop them.
Finally, Jake breaks down emotionally, and Marlene goes to hug him and tells him she understands how hard the loss of his fiancée is. As she consoles him, another one of the women, Heidi, tries to come on to Tom, but he rejects her and says he is in love with another woman. The girls ultimately leave the apartment, leaving Tom and Jake alone together. When Tom asks Jake what this is all about, the latter angrily throws the pair of red shoes at Tom's feet. Tom recognizes them and realizes who Jake is. He asks, "Where is she?", unaware that Alex committed suicide. Jake bluntly tells him what happened and how he pulled Alex from the bathtub. After processing everything that's happened, Tom punches Jake, who is left on the floor while Stella licks his head. Tom walks back home alone beside the train tracks, smoking.
Some time later, Jake takes Alex's suitcases of belongings to Martha's home. She's been drinking, and can't stop herself from crying. Jake tries to offer some consolation, saying that it was not Martha's fault. He again remembers himself and Alex, playing in the park with Stella. Jake goes to a diner to have coffee, and as the waitress gives him his change and Stella waits outside, he finishes reading the diary. Jake goes to a public phone and calls the local newspaper to place an ad on the contacts page, saying he will pay for anonymous stories from women who have felt betrayed or who have ever betrayed someone. After placing the ad, he walks past the train tracks with Stella.
---written by KrystelClaire
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