In 2021, adult Rachel heads home after the Toy Show and curls up in bed with her sleeping husband, James Carey. She decides she will tell him about Byrne’s coma in the morning. Lying in bed, she reminisces about the night she met James Carey, whom she called Carey so as not to confuse him with James Devlin.

She approaches him at a bar after closing time and asks for a cigarette. She assumes he will not be interested in her romantically because he is shorter than her. In her experience, shorter men tend to treat her like one of the boys and make jokes about her height. When she asks his name, and he tells her it is James, she says, “Sorry, I already have one of those” (79). However, the two of them feel an instant attraction. She takes James home with her. En route, he goes down on her in an alley. They arrive at Shandon Street and have an intense sexual encounter. Afterward, they laugh together like old friends.

Rachel determines that she will no longer judge Dr. Byrne for pursuing James. She thinks, “It was easy, now that I understood passion properly, to see why you would move heaven and earth to secure it” (83).