Expiration Dates

Daphne and Hugo take Murphy for a walk while Jake is out of town on a work trip. It is the first time that Daphne has been alone with Hugo since she and Jake became engaged a month ago. Hugo seems happy for her, but Daphne feels a rift forming between them. Hugo asks if Daphne is sure about going through with the wedding. Frustrated, Daphne reminds Hugo that he was the one who said that she should embrace her happiness with Jake.

Hugo says that she was right that he could not handle her illness five years ago, but he can now. Angrily, Daphne demands to know what Hugo’s point is. He says that he still loves her; he wants to take her home, take care of her, put all her absurd knick-knacks in his house, and keep her “for as long as it lasts. Fifty years or five or fifteen […] minutes” (221). He adds that even more than that, he wants Daphne to tell the truth, no matter how inconvenient it might be.

Furious, Daphne shouts,

The truth isn’t just inconvenient, Hugo. Do you know what the truth is? The truth is a death sentence when you’re twenty years old.