With Sarah and Jack out of the framework of her daily life, Laurie commits to being a good magazine writer and wife. In September, she and Oscar pay a visit to his mother, who is having a small social gathering. While trying to help set up flowers in the kitchen, Laurie runs into Oscar’s ex Cressida, and a mishap with the vase spills water on her. Cressida accuses Laurie of doing it on purpose, and Laurie is flabbergasted that the thought could even cross her mind. Oscar enters the kitchen and believes Cressida for a moment. Laurie is “trying to read between the lines to see what is really happening here. Something is clearly eating Cressida up from the inside out” (325). The encounter is awkward, in part because the undertone of tension has become too evident to ignore for all three of them.

At home, Laurie and Oscar have an argument. He admits that Cressida would like an “arrangement,” and when Laurie, shocked, asks him if that’s what he wants, he says “not really.” Oscar is clearly not being forthcoming with Laurie when she asks him questions.