At dawn, Poppy drives to a twenty-four-hour pharmacy, buys supplies and groceries, and returns to the overheated apartment to care for Alex's back spasm. She alternates heat and ice, rubs Icy Hot into his back, and makes him breakfast in bed. When Alex says he hates needing help, Poppy tells him she is honored to take care of him, which makes the moment feel intimate as well as practical.

Even so, Alex urges Poppy to go out and enjoy Palm Springs and gather material for her article. Poppy obeys, but she cannot focus on the art museum or the antiques district because she is anxious about him and hurt by the emotional distance between them. She calls Rachel, admits the trip is going badly, and learns Rachel is picking up Otis after a benign tumor removal. By late afternoon, Poppy gives up on sightseeing and returns with sandwiches.

Back at the Desert Rose, Alex says he feels better and proudly reveals he got the air conditioner down to seventy-eight degrees. Over lunch, Poppy learns his spasms started a couple of months after Croatia and happen when he is not exercising regularly. Their conversation turns reflective: Poppy feels she missed important parts of Alex's life during their estrangement, while Alex says he missed things too. Poppy privately thinks about how often she has fled difficult choices, including what happened between them.

When Alex goes to the bathroom and asks Poppy to set up Netflix on his laptop, she accidentally sees a job posting for a teaching position at Berkeley Carroll in New York City. Confronted, Alex admits he was looking but says he has unfinished things tying him to Linfield, including Betty's house and possibly a woman. Poppy realizes he may be considering Sarah again, and the conversation sharpens into a fight about what each of them wants from life.

Alex finally speaks with unusual force, saying he wants marriage, children, a shared home, and the ordinary future his brothers have, and he does not want to wait indefinitely for it. Poppy, hurt and ashamed, insists she does not despise that kind of life and tearfully tells him she does not want him to marry Sarah because Sarah takes him for granted and because losing him would devastate her. Alex softens, comforts her, and the tension eases into flirtation when he jokes about his terrible Tinder luck and lets Poppy see his dating profile.