Vanessa is outside Richard’s fiancée’s apartment when the young woman appears. She’s wearing workout clothes and carrying a take-out salad. To her disappointment, Vanessa can’t tell if she’s pregnant and realizes that if her replacement were pregnant, she wouldn’t be showing yet anyway. After the young woman has disappeared into her building, Vanessa wonders if she should confront her and tell her not to marry Richard. Vanessa decides to wait and begins to walk home, ordering a salad from the same place the young woman did. She consumes it immediately, feeling a sudden hunger she hasn’t felt in years.

Once home, Vanessa finds Aunt Charlotte sprawled across the couch with a towel pressed to her face. Though Vanessa is worried, Charlotte promises that she is fine. Regardless, Vanessa makes them both dinner. The act reminds them both of Vanessa’s mother, who was an accomplished cook but would leave a path of destruction after each meal. Charlotte asks Vanessa if she likes cooking now and Vanessa thinks, “I hate it,” remembering the times she felt obliged to cook for Richard (107). After their fight at the fertility office, Vanessa tried to make things right between them by making Richard’s favorite dish—lamb vindaloo.