Alice Scott woke at 9:32 a.m. with a severe headache she recognized as caffeine withdrawal. She noted the contrast between Margaret Grace Ives’s marsh-side property and the island’s oceanfront resorts, adding a question about that choice to her prospective interview list. Reflecting on Hayden Anderson’s reverse-structured biography Our Friend Len, she considered finding a structural device for Margaret’s story to strip away myth and reveal personhood, but postponed deeper thought until she had coffee.

Alice dressed and drove to a well-reviewed cafe, Little Croissant, in the Little Crescent Enclave. After ordering, she mistakenly took a cup labeled for Hayden and got a mouthful of green tea instead of coffee. Hayden appeared sweaty from a run, and they exchanged drinks amid dry banter about his running. As he left, his watch rang and he answered, “Ms. Ives, hi,” indicating a call from Margaret.

On her drive back, Alice tried to reassure herself that Margaret calling Hayden first might be procedural rather than decisive. She reflected on whom she had told about the opportunity, choosing not to tell her mother but wishing she could share with her late father, who had loved Cosmo’s music and the Margaret–Cosmo love story, including the “Peggy Quartet.”

While driving, Alice received a call from Jodi, who briskly asked her to come for another meeting with Margaret that day, specifying an 8:00 p.m. dinner with a 7:30 p.m. cocktail hour and narrow timing expectations. The call ended abruptly. Alice, reassured by the invitation, felt joy and renewed optimism as her music resumed.