Stranded in the past and exhausted, Cassie goes to the familiar safety of Kellner Books to think. Sitting in the back, she berates herself for her mistakes and panics again about Izzy’s fate, then realizes she needs food and shelter as night approaches.

Cassie buys a muffin and coffee and tries to calm down. While she sits watching the street, John Webber unexpectedly enters the bookstore, orders coffee, and sits nearby with a book under his arm. Cassie recognizes this as her best chance to reach the Book of Doors and approaches him carefully, thanking him for the money he gave her earlier.

To make Webber listen, Cassie asks for one statement and proves intimate knowledge of his past by describing an incident from his youth in Rome. Webber, shaken because he never shared that story, presses her for an explanation. Cassie tells Webber they become friends in the future and that she is stranded in his time, asking for help.

Webber tests her claim by examining Cassie’s phone, noting its advanced design and a browser page dated years ahead of the present, which convinces him something is truly wrong. He explains that his solitary life has made him good at reading people, and he believes Cassie is neither crazy nor running a con, even if her story sounds impossible. Cassie then recounts her situation in full while omitting details of Webber’s future death.

After hearing her, Webber identifies a crucial problem: he does not possess the “magical book” Cassie says he will one day give her, so he cannot send her back. Cassie breaks down at the prospect of being trapped, and Webber urges her to solve one problem at a time. He decides to offer Cassie his spare room for only a night or two as a temporary stopgap, and they leave Kellner Books together.