In this flashback vignette, Hannah recalls a quiet moment with Owen in bed, during which Owen suggested they take a vacation. Hannah responded by suggesting Owen accompany her to a woodworking symposium in Austin, Texas, which elicited an odd reaction: “Then he nodded, like he was considering it, considering joining me—except I felt something shift in him. I felt something shut down in his body” (77).

Owen began to toy with his wedding ring, suggesting the mention of Austin left him anxious, and Hannah describes the rings she made for herself and Owen when they married: “Two slim bands that, from a distance, looked like any other shiny, platinum ring. But I made ours out of brushed steel, a thick white oak” (77).

Owen suggested they go to New Mexico and lets it slip that he once drove to Taos for a weekend from college. Hannah was puzzled, since Owen went to Princeton and it seems odd to drive from New Jersey to New Mexico for a weekend, but Owen played it off, telling her he was confused about when the trip occurred because it was a strange time in his life. Hannah let it go, and remembers that when she did, “[Owen] lay down, again [.