Chap­ter X finds Addie attend­ing a din­ner par­ty in New York City on a chilly March evening, where for the first time in a long while, she expe­ri­ences a fleet­ing moment of nor­mal­cy. Sur­round­ed by the laugh­ter of her friends and the easy rhythm of casu­al con­ver­sa­tion, she is caught between Hen­ry and Elise, both of whom bring warmth and com­fort to the gath­er­ing. For this brief evening, Addie finds her­self almost able to believe that she could lead a life just like every­one else—uncomplicated, filled with sim­ple plea­sures, and free from the iso­la­tion that defines her exis­tence. Her inter­ac­tions with Bea, Josh, and Elise seem effort­less, their dis­cus­sions rang­ing from art to Paris and every­thing in between, each word flow­ing nat­u­ral­ly as they enjoy the evening. The soft touch of Henry’s hand under the table deep­ens the inti­ma­cy between them, ground­ing Addie in the present and offer­ing her a tem­po­rary escape from the heav­i­ness that has been her life for so long.

Yet, as the evening unfolds, the qui­et joy is quick­ly over­shad­owed by a sense of dis­com­fort that aris­es when Rob­bie, Henry’s close friend, dis­plays his dis­sat­is­fac­tion. Despite Josh’s flir­ta­tious ges­tures, Robbie’s rest­less ener­gy per­me­ates the room, cast­ing an invis­i­ble ten­sion that Addie picks up on instant­ly. It all comes to a head when Elise briefly leaves the table, only to return with a shock­ing revelation—she has for­got­ten Addie’s name. This sim­ple yet painful moment stark­ly expos­es the heart-wrench­ing truth of Addie’s exis­tence: no mat­ter how hard she tries, she will always be for­got­ten by those she meets, a con­stant in her life that she can nev­er escape. Addie’s pain is hid­den behind her prac­ticed smile, but the real­i­ty of her curse hangs heavy in the air, remind­ing her of the dis­tance between her and the world she so des­per­ate­ly wants to be part of.

As the group con­tin­ues to ban­ter about birth­days, Bea’s mys­te­ri­ous birth date spark­ing an easy con­ver­sa­tion, Addie is once again remind­ed of how eas­i­ly she slips through the cracks. Robbie’s care­less slip-up when he calls her “Andy” is an all-too-famil­iar moment of frus­tra­tion for Addie, an acci­den­tal slip that only empha­sizes her curse. She is nev­er able to hold a place in people’s mem­o­ries, always a shad­ow in the minds of those who briefly cross her path. The inci­dent expos­es the cru­el real­i­ty of her exis­tence, as she is left to won­der if any­one will ever tru­ly see her, if any­one will ever remem­ber her for more than just the pass­ing moment.

The evening’s smooth veneer begins to crack when Rob­bie, per­haps over­come by emo­tions and jeal­ousy, storms off for a cig­a­rette, dis­rupt­ing the frag­ile peace the group had main­tained. Addie, sens­ing the unspo­ken ten­sion and the inevitable end to the evening, decides to leave, but not before exchang­ing a brief, lin­ger­ing kiss with Hen­ry. As she steps into the cold New York night, the famil­iar ache of lone­li­ness begins to set­tle back into her bones, remind­ing her of the empti­ness that often accom­pa­nies the end of a brief con­nec­tion. Yet, to her sur­prise, Hen­ry fol­lows her out, and they share a qui­et, inti­mate con­ver­sa­tion on the stoop, mark­ing a sub­tle but sig­nif­i­cant shift in their rela­tion­ship. Hen­ry reveals to Addie that Rob­bie has long car­ried an unre­quit­ed love for him, a rev­e­la­tion that forces Addie to reflect on the com­plex­i­ties of love and the pain of being caught in the cross­fire of some­one else’s emo­tions. In this can­did moment, Addie is remind­ed of the fragili­ty of human con­nec­tion, the raw vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty that defines the pur­suit of love, and the bit­ter­sweet beau­ty of fleet­ing moments where, even for a short while, she allows her­self to believe in the pos­si­bil­i­ty of true con­nec­tion.

This chap­ter explores the lay­ers of human emotion—love, jeal­ousy, pain, and the deep yearn­ing to be remem­bered. As Addie nav­i­gates the intri­cate rela­tion­ships in her life, she is con­front­ed with the inevitable nature of her curse, and yet, she finds solace in the brief moments of con­nec­tion that she expe­ri­ences with Hen­ry and the oth­ers. It is a reflec­tion on the del­i­cate bal­ance between human con­nec­tion and iso­la­tion, the com­plex­i­ty of unspo­ken feel­ings, and the fleet­ing beau­ty of shared expe­ri­ences, all woven togeth­er by Addie’s long­ing for some­thing per­ma­nent in a world where she is des­tined to be for­got­ten. The chap­ter cap­tures the essence of what it means to love and lose, to be seen and then dis­ap­pear, and the qui­et resilience that push­es one to con­tin­ue seek­ing mean­ing even when it feels like noth­ing lasts.