The chap­ter “That Girl” cap­tures the whim­si­cal yet rocky begin­ning of a young cou­ple’s mar­riage, show­cas­ing a blend of romance, humor, and deter­mi­na­tion. It begins with the antic­i­pa­tion of a per­fect hon­ey­moon in the Bahamas, over­shad­owed by the mis­for­tune of lost lug­gage. After arriv­ing in Nas­sau with noth­ing but win­ter clothes, Jef­frey, the groom, des­per­ate­ly engages with the air­port man­ag­er, express­ing the urgency of retriev­ing their bags for their short stay. The man­ag­er, swayed by Jef­frey’s charm and urgency, offers him $300 to buy essen­tials.

Back at the hotel, excit­ed by their new­found “wealth,” they joy­ous­ly throw the cash into the air, only to be inter­rupt­ed by the news that their lug­gage has final­ly arrived. Cap­i­tal­iz­ing on their wind­fall, Jef­frey sur­pris­es his bride with a pink cash­mere sweater set and pearl ear­rings, ful­fill­ing a long-held dream of hers. As their hon­ey­moon wraps up, the cou­ple faces the real­i­ties of mar­ried life: Jef­frey con­tin­ues his mil­i­tary train­ing, while the nar­ra­tor heads back to school in Syra­cuse.

The chap­ter takes a comedic turn as the nar­ra­tor grap­ples with unan­tic­i­pat­ed expens­es, like the fur blan­ket she’d ordered months ago, forc­ing her to devise a plan to earn extra mon­ey dur­ing finals. She sells donuts door-to-door in her dorm to pay off the bill, an entre­pre­neur­ial endeav­or rem­i­nis­cent of her future food busi­ness ven­tures.

Upon set­tling into their new mar­ried life in Fayet­teville, North Car­oli­na, the cou­ple expe­ri­ences the chal­lenges of find­ing suit­able accom­mo­da­tion and estab­lish­ing a com­fort­able home. The nar­ra­tor express­es dis­may at the state of their first liv­ing quar­ters and quick­ly moves to secure a more appeal­ing place.

Through­out this nar­ra­tive, themes of inde­pen­dence and per­son­al growth emerge, par­tic­u­lar­ly as the nar­ra­tor nav­i­gates school and home life. Jef­frey encour­ages her to explore her poten­tial and con­sid­er her aspi­ra­tions beyond being a house­wife, sug­gest­ing she enroll in class­es and pur­sue her dreams. She reflects on her past ambi­tions and rec­og­nizes the impor­tance of plan­ning for the future.

Ulti­mate­ly, the chap­ter illus­trates the cou­ple’s jour­ney as they learn to bal­ance love, ambi­tion, and the real­i­ties of mar­ried life, enriched by moments of humor and warmth.