How It All Goes Down
- It's now spring.
- Lou talks about how she and Patrick had met while she was working as a trainee hair stylist. Patrick was a lot different back then: a normal bloke with a normal beer belly.
- At some point, however, Patrick became "obsessed by his own shape" at the expense of their relationship (7.7). Lou tried to be supportive, but the distance between them grew.
- At the Granta House, Mrs. Traynor orders Lou and Will outside while cleaners take care of the house. They chill in the garden.
- Will asks Lou about her six-year relationship with Patrick. She responds by asking him about his relationship with Alicia.
- Things are different between Will and Lou now. There's still tension occasionally, especially when Will is in pain (as he often is), but they have an understanding.
- One day, Will asks Lou where else she's lived, and she reveals that she's never left her small town. Will is shocked—he thinks that she should live a little.
- In response, Lou decides to speak her mind back at him—dude needs a haircut and a shave. She's shocked when he agrees.
- Lou gets to work on Will's hair and beard, which feels "curiously intimate" (7.128). Quite curious, eh?
- As Lou goes off to get a mirror to show Will her handiwork, she hears the shouting of a young woman. What is it now?
- The woman is shouting about how "selfish" Will is (7.149). Will introduces her to Lou as Georgina, his sister, who currently lives in Australia.
- Lou leaves the house to let them do their thing, returning a half-hour later to find Will in a daze. What a warm family reunion.
- Later, as Lou is washing laundry, she eavesdrops on a conversation between Georgina and Mrs. Traynor.
- Mrs. Traynor confirms that Will tried to kill himself in January. She also reveals that he made her promise to take him someplace called "Dignitas" after an agreed-upon six-month period, which Georgina responds to with anger and horror.