- Don creeps out of the apartment. When he closes the door, he notices a handwritten note from Helen taped to it. She wants him to call her.
- He ends up at Nat's bar. It's still early and Nat's in the middle of lunch, but Don anxiously prods him until he pours him a shot of rye.
- Nat tells Don that Helen came by last night—he told her that Don hadn't been there for weeks.
- Don talks about being an alcoholic, about how the mornings are awful because liquor stores aren't open yet, and how Sundays are even worse because they don't open at all.
- Nat asks Don if he drank both bottles last night, but Don is confused—he had forgotten about the second one. Don celebrates these "untapped reserves" with another shot.
- Just then, Gloria shows up—she's supposed to have lunch with a family friend. She flirts with Don and he jokingly suggests that they see Hamlet together tonight.
- This is interrupted by the entrance of a stiff-looking square: Gloria's man. When he approaches her, she says that she's actually Gloria's roommate, and that Gloria couldn't come because her appendix ruptured. It's a really funny moment.
- Gloria explains that she rejected the man because she didn't want to miss an opportunity to go out with Don. He half-heartedly confirms that his suggestion was serious. Yeah, right.
- She tells him to pick her up at eight—she lives in the apartment with a "wooden Indian" statue out front. She seems genuinely excited.
- Nat refuses Don's next demand for a shot. He doesn't like the way Don's treating Gloria (as he knows that Don won't show up for their date) not to mention Helen.
- Frankly, Nat has no idea how a "high-class" lady like Helen ended up with a drunk like Don. Don explains that this exact question is what he seeks to answer with his new novel.
- Oddly, this compels Nat to finally give Don his shot. Nat reciprocates by giving him the title of his soon-to-be novel: The Bottle.
- He even has the first chapter ready to go. It begins three years ago on a "wet afternoon" at the Metropolitan Opera. It's flashback time, people!