Chap­ter II opens with Addie LaRue expe­ri­enc­ing an unfa­mil­iar sen­sa­tion as she eager­ly antic­i­pates meet­ing Hen­ry, some­thing she has not had to con­tend with in cen­turies. As the min­utes tick by, each one seems to stretch on end­less­ly, ampli­fy­ing her grow­ing sense of impa­tience. Addie, typ­i­cal­ly some­one for whom time has lit­tle mean­ing, finds her­self at a rare cross­roads of feel­ing both the weight and the excite­ment of wait­ing for someone—a feel­ing that stands in stark con­trast to her usu­al exis­tence, where she is unmoored from time’s pass­ing. She’s cur­rent­ly stay­ing in the home of a children’s book author in Prospect Park, where she attempts, and fails, to dis­tract her­self from the emo­tions she is expe­ri­enc­ing.

Unable to sleep and rest­less, Addie takes on sev­er­al activ­i­ties in an attempt to fill the hours. She exper­i­ments with her appear­ance, chang­ing her hair­style, apply­ing make­up, and wan­der­ing through Brooklyn’s bou­tiques, hop­ing these dis­trac­tions will ease her grow­ing ner­vous­ness. For Addie, the expe­ri­ence of eager­ly await­ing some­thing is a new one, mark­ing a stark depar­ture from the soli­tude and aim­less­ness that has char­ac­ter­ized her long exis­tence. Her con­nec­tion with Hen­ry, how­ev­er brief it may be, evokes a feel­ing of antic­i­pa­tion she hasn’t felt before, high­light­ing how much her life has changed since meet­ing him, and the emo­tion­al depths that were pre­vi­ous­ly unex­plored in her oth­er­wise detached immor­tal life.

As the time to meet Hen­ry draws near­er, the anx­i­ety in Addie becomes pal­pa­ble. When she arrives at the book­store, her heart sinks as she faces Beat­rice, who seems to play a sig­nif­i­cant role in Henry’s life, adding to Addie’s sense of unease. This moment of awk­ward­ness is ampli­fied by Addie’s fear of being an out­sider in Henry’s world, rais­ing ques­tions about where she fits in. The ten­sion in their exchange is real, but when Hen­ry final­ly appears, his warmth and con­tin­ued con­nec­tion with Addie help dis­si­pate her fears, tem­porar­i­ly calm­ing the storm inside her.

The chap­ter takes on a lighter tone as Hen­ry, Beat­rice, and Addie engage in friend­ly con­ver­sa­tion about art, rela­tion­ships, and their respec­tive views on life. This exchange shows a dif­fer­ent, more play­ful side of Addie, a wel­come change from the soli­tary, sto­ic fig­ure she had become accus­tomed to. The ban­ter helps Addie feel a bit more at ease with Hen­ry and with her­self, offer­ing a glimpse of the life she could poten­tial­ly build with him. It shows her open­ing up, allow­ing her­self to embrace the warmth of com­pan­ion­ship in a way that’s been for­eign to her for so long due to the curse of being for­got­ten.

Their evening takes an unex­pect­ed turn when Hen­ry leads Addie to a laun­dro­mat that con­ceals a hid­den pin­ball arcade—a quirky and play­ful venue that offers a sur­pris­ing sense of adven­ture and spon­tane­ity. This detour marks a mem­o­rable moment of shared joy, as they indulge in the sim­plic­i­ty of a pin­ball game, laugh­ing and enjoy­ing each other’s com­pa­ny. In this light-heart­ed com­pe­ti­tion, Addie expe­ri­ences some­thing she hasn’t in cen­turies: the joy of a shared, fun expe­ri­ence that’s both present and tan­gi­ble. The night becomes a reminder to Addie that, despite the deep and com­pli­cat­ed curse that has shaped her exis­tence, there is still room for moments of con­nec­tion, joy, and hope. These seem­ing­ly small, fleet­ing moments show Addie that a life full of com­pan­ion­ship and love may still be pos­si­ble for her, even if it’s just for this one night.

As the evening winds down, Addie’s heart holds a faint spark of hope—something she has almost for­got­ten she was capa­ble of feel­ing. For the first time in cen­turies, she envi­sions a future where con­nec­tion with oth­ers is not only pos­si­ble but tan­gi­ble, a notion that fills her with a renewed sense of pos­si­bil­i­ty. As the night con­tin­ues, Addie is forced to con­front the inher­ent lone­li­ness of her exis­tence, but there’s an unde­ni­able shift in her per­spec­tive. For a brief moment, it seems as if she might final­ly be able to carve out a place for her­self in the world, against the odds of her eter­nal soli­tude. This chap­ter marks a turn­ing point for Addie, as she begins to real­ize that per­haps, just maybe, she can still find the human con­nec­tions she craves, even if they are fleet­ing.