Chap­ter VI unfolds in the heart of New York City, where Addie and Hen­ry share a meal of fish-and-chips and beer in a British-style pub, enjoy­ing the casu­al atmos­phere and the live­ly chat­ter around them. As they sit, a con­ver­sa­tion unfolds between them, reveal­ing Addie’s impres­sive lin­guis­tic tal­ents when she over­hears a near­by cou­ple engaged in a heat­ed argu­ment. Lis­ten­ing intent­ly, Addie effort­less­ly switch­es between sev­er­al lan­guages, show­cas­ing her vast knowl­edge of tongues accu­mu­lat­ed over cen­turies. Hen­ry, astound­ed by her abil­i­ties, teas­es her, sug­gest­ing that with her skills, she could have been an extra­or­di­nary spy. Addie, always ready with a play­ful response, enter­tains the idea for a moment, demon­strat­ing the light­heart­ed side of their dynam­ic amidst the oth­er­wise seri­ous lay­ers of her exis­tence.

As they pre­pare to leave the pub, Addie, in her usu­al mis­chie­vous fash­ion, sug­gests they leave with­out pay­ing the bill, ful­ly con­fi­dent that their wait­er will for­get to charge them, as he like­ly won’t remem­ber them. Hen­ry, on the oth­er hand, feels a strong sense of account­abil­i­ty and respon­si­bil­i­ty, firm­ly reject­ing the idea and insist­ing they set­tle the bill. This moment expos­es a deep­er dif­fer­ence in their per­son­al­i­ties and experiences—Addie’s his­to­ry has forced her to rely on sur­vival tac­tics, often involv­ing decep­tion and elu­sion, while Hen­ry, who expe­ri­ences a life more root­ed in vis­i­bil­i­ty, holds onto prin­ci­ples of fair­ness and respect. The ten­sion between their dif­fer­ing views on respon­si­bil­i­ty reflects the nuances of their rela­tion­ship, shaped by the unique chal­lenges they each face in nav­i­gat­ing the world.

Their play­ful dis­agree­ment soon deep­ens into a more seri­ous con­flict, where Hen­ry ques­tions Addie’s meth­ods of cop­ing with her con­di­tion. His dis­com­fort with her choice of sur­vival through acts of theft and eva­sion brings to the sur­face the immense iso­la­tion she has endured over her long life. Addie defends her actions, insist­ing that for cen­turies, these small acts have been nec­es­sary for her to main­tain a sense of auton­o­my in a world that repeat­ed­ly for­gets her. The con­flict under­scores the emo­tion­al weight Addie carries—a life marked by fleet­ing con­nec­tions and the per­pet­u­al strug­gle to define her iden­ti­ty, while sur­round­ed by peo­ple who nev­er tru­ly know her. Despite Henry’s ini­tial judg­ment, Addie’s fierce defense reveals her vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and the inner tur­moil she expe­ri­ences, torn between sur­vival and the moral com­plex­i­ties of her actions.

This dis­agree­ment fur­ther high­lights the ten­sion between Henry’s desire for a more tra­di­tion­al, “nor­mal” rela­tion­ship and Addie’s inher­ent need for auton­o­my, shaped by her extra­or­di­nary life. While Hen­ry seeks a sta­ble, pre­dictable future with her, Addie, unable to pro­vide the type of inti­ma­cy he desires, push­es back against expec­ta­tions. How­ev­er, even in the heat of their argu­ment, Hen­ry refus­es to let their con­flict define their rela­tion­ship, fol­low­ing Addie out into the night and show­ing that his com­mit­ment to her is not eas­i­ly shak­en. His reas­sur­ance that the argu­ment won’t end their bond speaks vol­umes about the depth of their connection—a recog­ni­tion that despite their dif­fer­ences, they share some­thing mean­ing­ful that is worth pre­serv­ing.

The chap­ter con­cludes on a note of cau­tious rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, as the pair walks togeth­er through the qui­et night, their silence filled with a mix of under­stand­ing and unspo­ken words. Addie, in a rare moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, admits to the dif­fi­cul­ty she faces in adjust­ing to a nor­mal rela­tion­ship, espe­cial­ly giv­en her extra­or­di­nary life and its bur­dens. Hen­ry lis­tens with empa­thy, under­stand­ing the inter­nal con­flict she grap­ples with, between her desire for con­nec­tion and the real­i­ty of her exis­tence. In this moment, their shared vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty allows them to recon­nect on a deep­er lev­el, strength­en­ing their bond. This final exchange encap­su­lates the del­i­cate dance between the com­plex­i­ties of their rela­tion­ship, where both are will­ing to nav­i­gate the dif­fi­cult ter­rain of their dif­fer­ences, unit­ed by a shared under­stand­ing of each other’s strengths and scars.