The Good Part

Lucy decides to treat herself to a shopping spree at Selfridges, a department store in London. She starts with croissants and coffee and then meets Linda, a personal shopper who helps her try on outfit after outfit. She ends up buying a 2,080-pound suit, shoes, and accessories. Lucy justifies it to herself, thinking that the point of having a large bank account balance is to be able to spend it. She decides to wear her new purple power suit out of the store.

Emily texts to ask if she’s okay, and Sam texts about tiles for the bathroom being on sale. Scrolling through her text history with Sam, Lucy notices that the conversations are less romantic and more practical. A coworker, Michael Green, calls from work to let Lucy know that the pitch went well. Lucy decides to come into the office since she looks the part.

Lucy quickly realizes that she does not know the name of her company or where it is located, but she is able to figure it out by calling the number Trey called from earlier. The person who answers the phone mentions Badger TV, so Lucy does a Google search to figure out where the office is. In doing so, she also finds out that she and Michael are the TV executives of Badger TV and that her married name is Lucy Rutherford.

When she arrives, Lucy asks the receptionist to get a runner to help her, and Callum is summoned. Lucy does not want to tell her colleagues about her time jump, so she devises a plan to have Callum pretend that she is an imposter and provide her names and clues about what is going on so she can fake her way through. Callum shows her to her office, where she finds Zoya’s card from 16 years ago congratulating her on her junior TV researcher job, a picture of Sam, and a photo with Michelle Obama from an awards program.

Michael and the rest of the employees join Lucy in the office to celebrate the successful pitch, and Lucy invites everyone out for drinks to dodge Michael’s suggestion about updating everyone on the “Kydz Network situation” (84). Over drinks, Trey asks for advice about getting engaged (Lucy tells him to go for it), and Lucy almost kisses Callum (he pulls her to the side and reminds her that she’s married). Sam calls and is frustrated to find out that Lucy was out drinking.

When Lucy wakes up in the nice house again, she is disappointed because it seems like the time jump might be permanent. When she goes downstairs to join Sam and the children, Sam is cold and distant, clearly upset about her late night out. Lucy learns that Sam had to pick her up from the station because she was too drunk to make it home. He confronts her about the shopping spree and demands to know what is going on with her.

After Lucy tells Sam about her time jump, he makes a few calls in the other room, promising to take care of her. Maria returns to watch the children so Sam can take Lucy to the hospital to get checked out.

Sam takes Lucy to see a doctor named Shepperd, who orders several scans to try to determine the source of Lucy’s “memory loss.” Lucy is at first worried about the expense, but she is assured that her private insurance through work will cover it. Dr. Shepperd diagnoses her with “transient global amnesia, a sudden, temporary loss of memory and inability to recall the past” (101).

On the way back home, Lucy asks Sam to tell her how they first met, and he tells her about watching her do a karaoke performance of a song that he wrote. While Sam takes Maria home, Lucy is left alone with the children. Lucy plays with Amy and tells Felix what the doctor said. Felix is concerned because he does not believe the doctor would know what to do about aliens taking over his mother. He asks Lucy how she got here, and they discuss portals and the wishing machine. He needs his mother back to help him with his school project.

Sam returns home, feeds the children, and puts them to bed. When he returns downstairs, they discuss how happy their pictures from vacations and events look given the challenges they faced during those experiences, such as Felix’s sickness and Lucy’s lost luggage.

Lucy asks about her parents and is relieved to find out that they are alive and well, but when she asks about her friends (Faye, Zoya, and Roisin), Sam suggests that she wait until tomorrow. Lucy asks Sam about his music and why he says he doesn’t write songs anymore, but Sam is evasive. When it is time for bed, Lucy asks to sleep separately because she does not feel comfortable enough with Sam to sleep in the same bed.

Lucy wakes up to Amy crying, but Sam is already there, soothing her. Lucy picks up her phone to see a message from Michael alluding to the Kydz Network email and how uneasy he feels about it, but she does not know to what he is referring. Next, Lucy scrolls her WhatsApp chats and finds her group chat with Faye and Roisin. When she reaches out to her friends, they respond despite the early hour. She asks them to come over to her house so she can tell them about her time jump.

Lucy asks about Zoya, who is missing from the chat. Faye calls her to find out what is going on with Lucy and tells her that Zoya died. When Lucy learns this, Sam comforts her and tells her that Zoya’s death was caused by a brain aneurysm. Faye comes over to the house to hear Lucy’s story and offer support. Lucy is upset because “[t]he logic of [her] narrative is starting to crumble, because with Zoya gone, how could this possibly be the good part of [her] life?” (129).