The next morning, Rachel decides kissing Dex the night before was wrong. She counts to three, a tactic she used when she was little to stop her bad habits and redirects her thoughts away from Dex and towards her friendship with Darcy. She remembers Darcy standing up for her to a popular senior and her boyfriend when they were freshman in high school. Darcy was “forceful and confident” (90). Rachel decides she’s going to call Dex when she gets to work to end the situation. But at work, she finds an email from Dex complimenting her and telling her he likes everything about her. It makes her “breathless, dizzy” (91). She rethinks ending something that makes her experience the feelings she’s been waiting for her entire life.

She receives a call from Ethan, her childhood crush, wishing her a happy birthday from England, where he now lives. They’ve stayed friends since high school, and she decides to tell him about Dex. Rachel confides in Ethan about sleeping with Dex and he laughs, telling her that “Miss Goody Two-shoes” sleeping with her best-friend’s fiancé is “raw comedy at its best” (94). She’s relieved he doesn’t judge her, and she tells him all the subsequent details, including the most recent email from Dex.