Chap­ter IX, On the evening of April 7, 1952, in Los Ange­les, Addie and Max find them­selves wrapped in a day that unfolds with a sur­pris­ing charm, begin­ning with an unan­tic­i­pat­ed encounter out­side the Wilshire. Their jour­ney togeth­er takes them through the city, from quaint tea shops to art muse­ums, as they share a series of spon­ta­neous moments that build an unex­pect­ed con­nec­tion between them. Addie, ever the enig­ma, claims that it’s her birth­day, a state­ment she quick­ly admits is a lie, spun to pro­voke a reac­tion from Max and per­haps to break free from the monot­o­ny of her oth­er­wise pre­dictable exis­tence. This small decep­tion, how­ev­er inno­cent in its intent, speaks to a deep­er desire for excite­ment, for some­thing more than the rou­tine of her dai­ly life. As their day stretch­es into the evening at the Roo­sevelt Hotel, they enjoy mar­ti­nis and Cham­pagne, con­tin­u­ing the cha­rade of cel­e­bra­tion under the guise of her fab­ri­cat­ed birth­day, bask­ing in the lux­u­ry of the moment and the illu­sion of some­thing spe­cial.

Max, a man of wealth and a refined taste for the fin­er things in life, offers Addie a sense of enchant­ment she hasn’t felt in a long time. Unlike the strug­gling artists she is accus­tomed to, Max presents a life of oppor­tu­ni­ty and indul­gence, his pres­ence refresh­ing in its con­trast to the world she has known. How­ev­er, their evening takes an unex­pect­ed turn when Luc, a fig­ure from Addie’s past, enters the scene with a qui­et but com­mand­ing pres­ence. His arrival shifts the entire atmos­phere, and Max, sens­ing the dis­rup­tion in the air, retreats with a sub­tle, almost com­plic­it with­draw­al, leav­ing Addie in Luc’s com­pa­ny. The exchange between Max and Luc, though unspo­ken, feels like a bat­tle of dom­i­nance, with Luc’s return mark­ing a shift in the emo­tion­al land­scape of the evening. Once again, Luc assumes con­trol, lead­ing Addie to the Cica­da Club, a venue known for its allur­ing ambiance, live music, and the intox­i­cat­ing atmos­phere that seems to res­onate with the unspo­ken ten­sion between them.

At the Cica­da Club, the mood evolves from casu­al enjoy­ment to some­thing far more inti­mate and charged with emo­tion. As Addie and Luc dance to the smooth, famil­iar melodies of Sina­tra, their bod­ies close and mov­ing in sync, the space between them shrinks, and the ener­gy shifts from light­heart­ed­ness to some­thing deep­er. The music swirls around them, cre­at­ing a per­fect back­drop to their grow­ing con­nec­tion, a con­nec­tion that Addie can no longer ignore. The dance, once mere­ly an act of phys­i­cal engage­ment, becomes a man­i­fes­ta­tion of some­thing more pro­found, an explo­ration of their desires and the unspo­ken his­to­ry that exists between them. Despite the dis­tance that has defined their past inter­ac­tions, the inti­ma­cy of the dance brings a close­ness they’ve nev­er shared, forc­ing both of them to con­front the deep, com­plex emo­tions they have avoid­ed for so long. Luc, with care­ful inten­tion, kiss­es Addie in a way that is unlike any kiss she has ever known. It’s a kiss filled with pro­found long­ing, ten­ta­tive yet filled with an unde­ni­able depth, a kiss that com­mu­ni­cates more than words could express, reveal­ing the lay­ers of emo­tion and under­stand­ing between them.

Their kiss leads them away from the club, trans­port­ing them to the qui­et seclu­sion of a hotel room, where the inten­si­ty of their bond esca­lates into some­thing raw and vul­ner­a­ble. What start­ed as a ten­der, cau­tious explo­ration of feel­ings becomes a pow­er­ful release of emo­tion, as their con­nec­tion deep­ens beyond the phys­i­cal. Luc’s kiss­es, no longer ten­ta­tive, grow more urgent, more fer­vent, as he unlocks a new lev­el of inti­ma­cy that res­onates deeply with­in Addie’s soul. There is some­thing unde­ni­ably dif­fer­ent about this moment, some­thing that sets Luc’s touch apart from any­one else’s—his kiss car­ries a weight that goes beyond mere phys­i­cal­i­ty, unlock­ing feel­ings that Addie has long sup­pressed. The raw­ness of their inter­ac­tion, a mix of pas­sion and emo­tion­al reck­on­ing, draws Addie into a place of deep vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, where she is no longer able to resist the depth of their con­nec­tion. For the first time, Addie finds her­self ques­tion­ing what it means to tru­ly let go, to open her­self up to some­one who under­stands her on a lev­el she has nev­er expe­ri­enced before. Luc’s touch doesn’t just reach her skin—it reach­es into her heart, awak­en­ing emo­tions she’s buried deep with­in her­self, stir­ring a desire for some­thing beyond the ordi­nary.

As their encounter unfolds, the sig­nif­i­cance of their con­nec­tion becomes unde­ni­able, shift­ing their rela­tion­ship into unchart­ed ter­ri­to­ry. Addie, over­whelmed by the inten­si­ty of what she is feel­ing, is left to con­front the depths of the bond they are forg­ing. Unlike any­thing she’s known before, this con­nec­tion with Luc holds the poten­tial for some­thing far greater, an emo­tion­al entan­gle­ment that both excites and fright­ens her. Through the course of this evening, Addie finds her­self at a cross­roads, torn between the desire to sur­ren­der to the inten­si­ty of their pas­sion and the fear of what such an inti­ma­cy might cost her. The pow­er of Luc’s kiss, and the emo­tions it evokes, leaves an indeli­ble mark on Addie, one that will shape the path of their rela­tion­ship in ways nei­ther of them can yet pre­dict. What began as a fleet­ing encounter has now trans­formed into some­thing far deep­er, some­thing that chal­lenges both of them to con­front their desires, their fears, and the com­plex­i­ties of their shared his­to­ry.