Chap­ter 39 takes us back to Evelyn’s thir­ty-sixth birth­day in 1974, a moment of opu­lence and indul­gence with her clos­est friends, includ­ing Har­ry, Celia, and John. The group dines at the Palace, a restau­rant that was known for being one of the most expen­sive places to eat at the time. Eve­lyn reflects on how, back then, she would throw mon­ey around with­out a sec­ond thought. She was sur­round­ed by lux­u­ry, from the caviar to the pri­vate planes, to the grand staff that could have filled a base­ball team. Look­ing back now, she finds it almost mor­ti­fy­ing, real­iz­ing how lit­tle she val­ued the wealth that came eas­i­ly to her. Yet, despite this, she acknowl­edges that those lav­ish expe­ri­ences were part of the world she lived in at the time, one where extrav­a­gance felt nat­ur­al and unre­mark­able. The group posed for pic­tures, know­ing they would soon appear in the tabloids, as their lives were always under the public’s watch­ful eye.

The night unfolds with a sense of cama­raderie and cel­e­bra­tion, as Celia buys them a bot­tle of Dom Perignon, and Har­ry indulges in four man­hat­tans. The atmos­phere is live­ly, with the group enjoy­ing the extrav­a­gance of it all. When the dessert arrives, with a can­dle in the mid­dle, they sing to Eve­lyn, mark­ing the occa­sion with a warmth and close­ness that sig­ni­fies their bond. The play­ful exchange con­tin­ues when John, know­ing they’re all watch­ing their fig­ures, insists Eve­lyn have a bite of the cake. Despite their best efforts to remain dis­ci­plined with their diets, Eve­lyn can’t help but give in. The light-heart­ed teas­ing turns into a toast from Celia, who rais­es her glass to Eve­lyn, cel­e­brat­ing her radi­ant pres­ence and the way she makes every­thing around her feel as if they’re liv­ing in a dream. Celia’s words are not just a toast to Evelyn’s beau­ty but a nod to the woman who had lit up every room she entered, leav­ing a last­ing impact on every­one she met.

Lat­er that night, as the evening winds down, there’s a shift in tone. The fun and excite­ment of the evening give way to a more inti­mate and con­tem­pla­tive con­ver­sa­tion. As Celia and John leave to hail a cab, Har­ry gen­tly helps Eve­lyn into her jack­et. Harry’s words, “Do you real­ize that I’m the longest mar­riage you’ve had?” catch Eve­lyn off guard, mak­ing her reflect on how much their rela­tion­ship has meant to her. With almost sev­en years of mar­riage under their belts, Eve­lyn real­izes that their con­nec­tion has become one of the most sta­ble and endur­ing parts of her life. Harry’s unspo­ken thought about start­ing a fam­i­ly res­onates deeply with Eve­lyn. At thir­ty-six, she real­izes that if she is going to have a child, the time to decide is now. For years, she had pushed aside the thought of moth­er­hood, focus­ing instead on her career. But in this moment, she begins to feel the pull of what it would mean to bring a child into the world and to cre­ate some­thing beyond her per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al iden­ti­ty.

Evelyn’s desire for a child becomes a major top­ic of dis­cus­sion, but it’s not just about her and Harry—it’s about the future they envi­sion togeth­er. She knows that the deci­sion to have a baby is not just hers to make; it involves Celia and John, too. Her career will inevitably be affect­ed, and the shift from being a woman of the spot­light to a moth­er will be immense. But Evelyn’s desire to cre­ate a fam­i­ly, to have some­thing tan­gi­ble to care for, out­weighs the fear of change. She con­tem­plates the impact it would have on her rela­tion­ships, par­tic­u­lar­ly with Celia. Their bond has always been uncon­ven­tion­al, but Eve­lyn knows that this deci­sion will require even more com­pro­mise and under­stand­ing. As Celia and Har­ry are both a part of her life, it’s clear that they all need to have a say in this shared vision of the future. Evelyn’s acknowl­edg­ment of the com­plex­i­ties of moth­er­hood and the sac­ri­fices it entails fur­ther deep­ens the emo­tion­al weight of the chap­ter, high­light­ing the sac­ri­fices one must make for love and fam­i­ly.

The chap­ter exam­ines the emo­tion­al depth of Evelyn’s rela­tion­ships, show­ing the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and love that can exist with­in a com­plex fam­i­ly dynam­ic. It also reflects on the sac­ri­fices made in the pur­suit of per­son­al desires, such as the bal­ance between career ambi­tions and the desire to have a fam­i­ly. The cen­tral theme of this chap­ter revolves around the intri­ca­cies of mak­ing life-alter­ing deci­sions, where per­son­al desires, soci­etal expec­ta­tions, and love inter­sect. Evelyn’s inter­nal con­flict, as she faces the pos­si­bil­i­ty of moth­er­hood, high­lights the uni­ver­sal strug­gles that come with nav­i­gat­ing iden­ti­ty, desire, and respon­si­bil­i­ty. The chap­ter serves as a poignant explo­ration of the pow­er of love and the sac­ri­fices that come with it, mak­ing it a relat­able and emo­tion­al­ly impact­ful moment in Evelyn’s jour­ney. As she begins to enter­tain the idea of hav­ing a child, it rep­re­sents a turn­ing point in her life where she must rec­on­cile her past choic­es with the future she envi­sions.