Han­nah allows her­self to be swept up in the rhythm of the music, mov­ing freely across the dance floor with Luis, a con­fi­dent and tal­ent­ed dancer who effort­less­ly match­es her ener­gy. The band has elec­tri­fied the atmos­phere, fill­ing the room with an intox­i­cat­ing vibran­cy that makes it easy to for­get the weight of the day’s events. For the first time in what feels like ages, she sur­ren­ders to the moment, let­ting the beat guide her and allow­ing her­self to enjoy the thrill of unin­hib­it­ed move­ment. The stress and lone­li­ness that had gnawed at her ear­li­er, fueled large­ly by Charlie’s dis­mis­sive behav­ior, begin to dis­solve into the back­ground. Each step, each turn, becomes an act of defi­ance against the emo­tions that had threat­ened to drag her down. The world out­side the dance floor ceas­es to exist, and for now, all that mat­ters is the warmth of the music, the close­ness of anoth­er human being, and the tem­po­rary illu­sion that she is unbur­dened by the past.

As the music inten­si­fies, so does the prox­im­i­ty between Han­nah and Luis, their move­ments nat­u­ral­ly pulling them clos­er with an unspo­ken chem­istry. There is a brief moment where their eyes meet, a silent acknowl­edg­ment of the grow­ing ten­sion, and Han­nah sud­den­ly feels the need to step away before she los­es her­self in some­thing she might regret. Search­ing for a rea­son to dis­tance her­self, she sug­gests get­ting a drink, need­ing a reprieve from the dizzy­ing mix of emo­tions surg­ing through her. Luis, how­ev­er, inter­prets this as an invi­ta­tion rather than a retreat, fol­low­ing her with­out hes­i­ta­tion, his easy charm mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to refuse his pres­ence. The cool air near the bar pro­vides some relief, and as she exhales, try­ing to regain her com­po­sure, they are greet­ed by Luis’s friend, Jethro. He intro­duces him­self casu­al­ly, mak­ing a remark about how Luis had noticed Han­nah ear­li­er in the night, a com­ment meant to be play­ful but which stirs an unex­pect­ed reac­tion with­in her.

The men­tion of Luis’s inter­est momen­tar­i­ly dis­tracts Han­nah, mak­ing her acute­ly aware of how much she craves being noticed, even if she simul­ta­ne­ous­ly strug­gles with the idea of let­ting some­one in. The con­ver­sa­tion quick­ly shifts as Jethro and Luis rem­i­nisce about their uni­ver­si­ty days, their cama­raderie strength­ened by shared expe­ri­ences in rug­by and late-night adven­tures. The men­tion of uni­ver­si­ty brings a wave of nos­tal­gia crash­ing over Han­nah, momen­tar­i­ly forc­ing her to reflect on her own past, the choic­es she has made, and the moments that have led her to this very night. She push­es the thought aside, unwill­ing to let mem­o­ries pull her away from the present, from the fleet­ing escape she so des­per­ate­ly wants to hold onto. Fueled by a sud­den impulse, she orders tequi­la shots, some­thing she nor­mal­ly wouldn’t do, dri­ven by a reck­less need to drown out her thoughts. Luis and Jethro fol­low her lead, rais­ing their glass­es in a spon­ta­neous toast, their laugh­ter a stark con­trast to the qui­et tur­moil brew­ing with­in Han­nah.

The tequi­la burns as it slides down her throat, but instead of dis­com­fort, she wel­comes the warmth, the dis­trac­tion, the false sense of invin­ci­bil­i­ty that alco­hol often pro­vides. The moment is light, easy, filled with shared laugh­ter and play­ful ban­ter, allow­ing her to momen­tar­i­ly detach from the weight press­ing against her chest. How­ev­er, when Jethro casu­al­ly men­tions Edin­burgh, a cold wave of real­i­ty set­tles over her, drag­ging her back to the rea­sons she is here in the first place. The name of the city is a sharp reminder of every­thing she has been try­ing to sup­press, a painful con­trast to the care­free atmos­phere sur­round­ing her. For a fleet­ing sec­ond, her resolve wavers, but she quick­ly forces a smile, unwill­ing to let the past steal this moment of escape. She takes anoth­er shot, hop­ing that if she drinks enough, she can blur the lines between past and present, between regret and tem­po­rary hap­pi­ness.

Despite her best efforts, Han­nah can­not com­plete­ly escape the emo­tions tan­gled with­in her. The dance, the music, the alcohol—all of it serves as a momen­tary reprieve, but deep down, she knows that the weight she car­ries can­not be lift­ed so eas­i­ly. The pres­ence of Luis and Jethro pro­vides a com­fort­ing dis­trac­tion, but it does not erase the lin­ger­ing thoughts of Char­lie, the way his actions had affect­ed her, the way they still had pow­er over her even now. As she moves through the night, oscil­lat­ing between moments of laugh­ter and brief flash­es of self-doubt, she real­izes that no mat­ter how hard she tries to lose her­self in the rev­el­ry, some wounds can­not be ignored. The escape she seeks is fleet­ing, the sense of free­dom only tem­po­rary, as real­i­ty waits patient­ly at the edges of her con­scious­ness, ready to pull her back in the moment she lets her guard down.