Rob does not particularly want to celebrate his birthday. He has a quiet drink with Dick and Barry after work, both of whom seem to have forgotten the significance of the date, but hears nothing from Laura nor any other women. Rob speculates whether Laura might throw him a surprise party but then decides to spend the day watching rented movies. He talks to his mother on the telephone. While the conversation is initially sympathetic, Rob hangs up when his mother begins to worry about him. Later, Laura calls from a public phone. She encourages him not to spend all his day in front of the television but declines an invitation to join him.

By mid-afternoon, Rob finishes all his rental movies and all his beer. He tries to organize a get together with his friends and manages to convince a few people to join him in a bar, including Marie. Rob spends an awkward hour alone with two friends who do not know one another before Marie arrives with T-Bone and a glamorous American woman to lighten the mood. Rob admits that the evening is “pretty bad” (222), and he reflects on the fact that many of his friends were actually Laura’s friends.