A few days after their dinner, Eunice reaches out to her mother. She encourages her to watch out for Sally’s weight instead of Eunice’s sexuality or future. She also lays out complicated calculations of how best to handle changing credit demands.

After her mother, Eunice messages Grillbitch to recap her family dinner. She describes how hard Lenny tried to make everything “always fair in the end” while her father was “flexing his fist under the table” (196). Eunice wonders how Lenny does not understand her. In his eyes, she complains, “niceness and smartness always win” (196).

Eunice is also upset that her mother does not approve of Lenny. By the time they return home from the dinner, she starts “to feel like [she loves] Lenny even more” (196). As she describes “what a good man he is,” Eunice talks herself into the fact that “things are really pretty good overall” (197). She even admits that she wants “to have a baby with him, even if things are really bad in the world” (197).

At the same time, Eunice continues to spend time with David at Tompkins Square. She is impressed that he is strong and “he keeps his little hut so NEAT (not like you-know-who, ha ha)” (197).