Addie feels that her luck is finally changing. After getting away with breaking into Kenzie’s house, she is relieved that Eve Bennett did not report her to the principal, gave her a list of cheap tutors, and offered to remove the zero if Addie improves by semester’s end. At the poetry magazine meeting, Addie is also pleased that Nate Bennett praises her new poem and seems to view her the same way as before.

When the meeting ends and the other students leave, Nate stops Addie and asks what Eve said to her. He reveals that he spoke to Eve on Addie’s behalf and urged Eve to give Addie another chance. Because Addie already admires him and feels grateful, Nate’s intervention deepens her emotional attachment to him. Addie impulsively hugs Nate, and the embrace lingers until Addie realizes he has become physically aroused.

Nate reacts with embarrassment and apologizes, but then explains that his marriage feels empty and says he has connected with Addie in a way he has never connected with anyone else. Addie leaves the room shaken, but instead of distancing herself, she decides she needs to understand what happened. She returns to the classroom, tells Nate she wants to talk, and, after he asks her to close the door, the tension between them escalates. Nate says he is trying to resist her, but Addie tells him he does not have to, and he kisses her.

After the kiss, Nate says their behavior is wrong, but he also insists he cannot resist her. Fearing they could be caught in the classroom, Addie leads him to an unused darkroom she knows is private. There, they drop some formal barriers, discuss what names to call each other, and Nate asks whether the earlier kiss was Addie’s first. When Addie says she wants this, Nate accepts that answer, pushes her against a table, and kisses her again, turning their emotional boundary-crossing into a secret physical affair.