Chap­ter 12 begins with Phoebe wak­ing up with an over­whelm­ing urge to con­nect with the ocean, prompt­ing her to head for a walk along the Cliff Walk. As she pre­pares, she spots Lila and Gary pos­ing for pho­tographs in the con­ser­va­to­ry, dressed for­mal­ly for the occa­sion, which seems unusu­al giv­en the ear­ly hour. Although she briefly admires Lila’s beau­ty, her mind quick­ly drifts to Lila’s harsh judg­ments about fash­ion, remind­ing her of the super­fi­cial nature of their rela­tion­ship. The ten­sion in the air is pal­pa­ble for a moment, but Phoebe choos­es to leave, step­ping out to the coast where she can enjoy some soli­tude and col­lect her thoughts.

Dur­ing her walk, Phoebe encoun­ters a cheer­ful yel­low dog, and, feel­ing play­ful, she engages in a light­heart­ed race with the ani­mal. She reflects on how much she longs for a pet, imag­in­ing the joy and free­dom it could bring to her morn­ings. The dog leads her to a more dan­ger­ous area near the cliffs, where signs warn of the risks, and here, she meets a fish­er­man who offers a friend­ly greet­ing. As they chat, Phoebe con­tem­plates her rela­tion­ship with her father, recall­ing how he viewed lone­li­ness with a sense of opti­mism, as if it was some­thing to be embraced rather than avoid­ed.

Sit­ting on the rocks, Phoebe expe­ri­ences a deep sense of grat­i­tude as she takes in the vast, raw ocean before her, feel­ing both small and infi­nite in its pres­ence. This peace­ful moment is abrupt­ly inter­rupt­ed by a text mes­sage from her hus­band, Matt, which brings forth a wave of frus­tra­tion and resent­ment. She decides not to respond, feel­ing that he should under­stand the pain she’s going through and share in the emo­tion­al tur­moil she feels. As she begins to reflect more deeply on her life and the choic­es she has made, the fish­er­man, who is busy reel­ing in a fish, invites her to join him. Phoebe helps him reel in a sea robin, but the real­iza­tion that the catch has lit­tle val­ue leaves her feel­ing dis­il­lu­sioned, mir­ror­ing her own per­cep­tions of worth­less­ness in her cur­rent state.

After return­ing to sol­id ground, Phoebe reflects on her resilience, acknowl­edg­ing how she has sur­vived the emo­tion­al tur­bu­lence that has marked much of her life. Her thoughts shift to Edith Whar­ton and the near­by house that car­ries no nos­tal­gia for her, rep­re­sent­ing instead a space of loss and artis­tic begin­nings dur­ing Wharton’s less under­stood years. This house, like much of her sur­round­ings, holds lit­tle per­son­al mean­ing for Phoebe, but serves as a reminder of both what has been lost and what can emerge from peri­ods of uncer­tain­ty and change. As Phoebe heads back from the coast, she encoun­ters Gary, whose light­heart­ed nature brings a much-need­ed con­trast to her heavy thoughts. Their exchange is filled with ban­ter about loss and rela­tion­ships, prompt­ing Phoebe to con­front the changes in her life and the iden­ti­ty she is form­ing in the face of them.

The chap­ter con­cludes with Phoebe head­ing back to the fes­tiv­i­ties, the antic­i­pa­tion of her role as maid of hon­or set­tling into her con­scious­ness. Despite the com­plex emo­tions she’s been grap­pling with, she feels a renewed sense of pur­pose and a glim­mer of humor in the midst of the bridal chaos. Her reflec­tions on the morn­ing, from her qui­et time by the ocean to her inter­ac­tion with Gary, allow her to embrace her respon­si­bil­i­ties with a clear­er mind, ready to face what­ev­er chal­lenges the day may bring. As she steps for­ward into this new role, she is remind­ed of the impor­tance of bal­ance between duty, per­son­al growth, and the inevitable joys and strug­gles that accom­pa­ny sig­nif­i­cant life events.