The narrator confides only in Jordi about her arrangement with Kris and Harris's girlfriend Paige, but rumors circulate that she and Harris are divorcing. This infuriates the narrator, who argues to Jordi that divorce merely reinforces the binary of marriage, whereas she envisions marriage as a dynamic relationship that shifts in centrality over time—like a parent-child bond. Jordi, always primarily bonded to Mel, gently warns her she may be in the minority.

At a gallery visit for Jordi's headless-women exhibition, they discover the space is too small for the grand pieces. Jordi announces she is quitting her advertising job and outlines a five-year plan tied to the idea of navigating the hormonal "cliff" of perimenopause wisely. The narrator realizes she has largely stopped worrying about her hormonal decline; her alarm has been replaced by mild interest, perhaps due to bioidenticals or the reshaping of her domestic life. They search online for the dramatic hormone graph they once feared but cannot find it, concluding that each woman finds the version of perimenopause she needs.

At a supermarket afterward, the narrator is suddenly seized by a NICU flashback triggered by the beeps and dings of the cash register. She relives the terror of watching newborn Sam in the isolette, hooked to monitors, being wheeled away. Jordi steadies her and walks her outside. Later, the narrator tries to visit the FMH moms' chat forum—a cherished ritual—but the page won't load. After repeated attempts over days, she concludes the site is gone, and she mourns having taken the modest comfort for granted.

At her next meeting with Kris, who arrives late to their room, they quickly get into bed. Kris tells the narrator about Elsa Penbrook-Gibbard, a wealthy midsixties art collector who lured Kris to what turned out to be a private dinner date at her spectacular Marina District home, under the guise of buying artwork. The narrator feels a pang of jealousy and looks Elsa up, noting that the collector paints portraits of beautiful young people and may want Kris as a muse. Kris reassures her she has no interest in Elsa, and the narrator reassures Kris that Elsa's admiration is genuine.

The threat of Elsa fuels intensely arousing sex between them, as the narrator narrates a fantasy of Kris returning to Elsa's house and finding her masturbating. Afterward, the narrator feels uneasy but tells Kris it was acceptable only because she trusts her. Holding Kris tightly, the narrator envisions a "cotillion" of all the couples and triangulations in her life—Kris and Elsa, Harris and Paige, her own parents having sex beside her as a child. Kris calls the childhood memory "kinky," which the narrator finds profound: she recognizes a lifelong pattern of orchestrating triangulations to avoid entrapment and abandonment. She feels she has finally found a willing, wise companion in Kris with whom she can explore the edge of every fear—cuckolding, hallucinogens, therapeutic journeys. The chapter ends with the narrator catching a small detail: Kris admitted the bed in Elsa's empty room was soft, meaning she had secretly lain on it—a detail that hints at Kris's curiosity about Elsa's world.