In the aftermath of the canceled wedding, the Cornwall Inn feels abruptly deflated. Guests whisper about Lila and Gary, Pauline handles complaints in a newly solemn tone, and Phoebe learns that although she wants to stay longer, the hotel is fully booked for another wedding starting the next day. The refusal forces Phoebe to face that her temporary refuge is ending.

Back upstairs, Phoebe sits on the balcony and thinks about Gary. She is unsure whether to contact him, because she cannot tell whether he wants solitude or company, and that uncertainty reminds her how little she may actually know him. As the staff dismantle the wedding decorations and the sound of balloons popping gives way to the ocean, Phoebe feels the waste and sadness of the abandoned celebration.

Phoebe finally goes to Gary's door, but he does not answer. Instead she meets Marla, who says Gary texted asking her to watch Juice until he returns, without explaining where he has gone. Oliver's sudden question about why Phoebe does not teach Percy Jackson briefly breaks the tension and gives Phoebe and Marla a moment of laughter.

Back in her room, Phoebe feels the same disorientation she felt on her first night at the hotel, now mixed with affection for the room and dread about leaving. Wanting to preserve what this place has given her, she opens her notebook and rereads the speech she wrote for the wedding. She realizes that while it failed as a speech, it contains the beginnings of an argument about failed weddings in Victorian novels, especially Jane Eyre.

Then Phoebe receives an email from Geoffrey offering her the job, even allowing a small dog if it is a nineteenth-century breed. The message fills her with excitement and possibility. Instead of spiraling, Phoebe downloads Jane Eyre, studies the failed-wedding scenes, and writes through the night without smoking or drinking, energized by the freedom to build a new life and new work sentence by sentence.