In Brooklyn, Henry Strauss goes to a different coffee shop, still avoiding Roast after the “Great Fire of 2013” caused by the Vanessa breakup. He orders a latte from Patrick, relieved the interaction is brief and impersonal.

Then Henry hears Tabitha’s voice and freezes, thrown back to the night she rejected his proposal. Tabitha looks much the same, and she greets Henry with immediate warmth, saying she has missed him “so much.”

Henry admits he missed Tabitha, too, and explains he had kept a box of Tabitha’s things, but there was a fire. Tabitha worries about Henry’s safety and touches his arm, leaning close with familiar intimacy that tempts Henry to fall back into old habits.

Henry forces distance, reminding Tabitha that Tabitha ended things. Tabitha insists she only wasn’t ready for the next step, claims she never wanted to break up, and tells Henry she loves him, asking to try again.

Henry refuses. Watching the “fog” in Tabitha’s eyes, Henry concludes Tabitha is not truly seeing him, only whatever version of him his bargain makes people want, so Henry lets Tabitha go rather than accept a love he believes is not real.