Mae struggles to sleep, castigating herself for assuming that Andrew would easily accept her revelations about Theo. Mae dreads the next day, Christmas Eve, which is likely to be tense instead of festive. Retreating from her bed to the fireplace, she appeals again to whatever force has brought her here, saying, “How am I any better off than I was the day we drove away from the cabin?” (248). She falls asleep in front of the fireplace after having a glass of whisky.

The next morning, Ricky finds Mae in the kitchen and disrupts their usual ritual to tell her a story. He explains that the older generation is familiar with relationship tensions and is experienced in eventually resolving them. Benny, it turns out, once briefly dated Lisa and was furious when he discovered that Ricky and Lisa were sleeping together. Mae is stunned by this revelation, but Ricky tells her to take this story as proof that people who are committed to their collective bonds can often resolve their differences. Her parents, he points out, made the same decision in the years following their divorce. Andrew enters and then awkwardly leaves again, and Ricky assures Mae that things will be better in time.