Cherry recounts her reluctance to move to Perth with David, describing how her mother Mae dismissed her unhappiness while going through menopause and extreme dieting. Cherry notes ominously that her mother spent her last years battling her weight and "won in the end, but the cost was unacceptable," hinting at a serious health consequence from her dieting. Auntie Pat was supportive but clashed mildly with Mae over how to comfort Cherry.

David's mother Michelle was equally upset about the move and wanted to follow them to Western Australia, but David's father Stephen refused. At the airport, Michelle tried to stuff food into Cherry's bags while Mae nibbled carrot sticks. Cherry asked her mother for a prediction about their future, but Mae deflected, pointing out their plane was boarding—a fair response, Cherry acknowledges, given that she had always dismissed her mother's fortune-telling abilities.

Cherry and David arrived in Perth during a heatwave. While David was enthusiastic about their new beachside apartment at Scarborough Beach, Cherry found it suffocating—both the heat and the living situation. Their neighbor Stella, a tanned, surfboard-carrying obstetrics trainee, informed them about mandatory Friday-night rooftop parties and encouraged David to join a scuba-diving club. David was thrilled; Cherry was dismayed at losing her quiet Friday documentary nights with her in-laws.

The apartment itself was furnished with depressing secondhand furniture that Cherry sensed came from an unhappy deceased estate, though the ocean view was genuinely stunning. David accused Cherry of not giving Perth a chance. When he immediately planned to join the diving club Stella recommended, Cherry sensed danger in his attraction to their new neighbor and volunteered to learn diving too. David discouraged her, calling her a potential "air pig" due to her nervous breathing, and mocked her anxious breathing at the fondue party where they first met. Cherry was mortified and hurt by his dismissiveness.

The chapter ends with a stark, telling contrast: Cherry did not become a scuba diver in Perth—she became a drinker.