The Heartbreak Hotel

In the kitchen that evening, Lou and Henry prepare dinner as Mei leaves for a night out in Denver. Henry shares with Lou that he lived alone in the house for five years before leaving because “it was time to move on” (176). He does not explain further. Frustrated by Henry’s vagueness, Lou proposes they play a question-for-question game. Henry asks how she ended up with Nate; she says they met in college. Lou learns that Henry is 34, eight years older than her. Henry asks Lou if she thinks he is too old, and Lou tells him no, the two joking about Henry’s “baby face”. 

After Lou puts Quinn to bed, Lou finds Henry waiting on the couch. She reflects that Henry’s presence makes the house feel more like home. Henry asks what Goldie meant about Lou postponing her career. Lou gives a partial truth, explaining that Goldie sees her as a failure for opening the inn instead of immediately pursuing her therapy license. When Lou asks how Henry understood when she got lost in a memory at the ice cream parlor, Henry pauses and then asks Lou if he can show her something.

Henry leads Lou upstairs to the smallest of the guest rooms, the Lupine Room, moving through the house with an ease that reveals his deep familiarity with it. Inside, he peels back the wallpaper to expose a child’s sky mural underneath. Henry confesses he had a three-year-old daughter named Molly who died six years ago from congenital heart disease. He explains this was her room, chosen so she could watch their neighbor’s dog, Custard, from the window. Molly’s death altered Henry and his ex-wife forever; he feels like he lost his entire family. Overcome by compassion for Henry, Lou places her hand over his heart in comfort. Henry thanks Lou for taking care of the house, which he cannot live in or sell.

In the hallway, Henry pulls Lou into an embrace and admits she scares him because of the intensity of his feelings for her. Henry confesses that he noticed Lou the day she moved in. He has wanted her since August, when she first visited his office.  Lou kisses Henry passionately. The encounter escalates until she invites him to stay in an empty guest room. Henry carries her into the Aspen Room, but stops before they have sex, saying he doesn’t want their first time to be hurried and that he wants more with her. He agrees to stay the night.

Lou wakes at two o’clock in the morning to find Henry gone. She discovers him shirtless and distressed on the living room couch in the dark. Henry apologizes, explaining it’s difficult for him to be in the house, but she makes him wish it wasn’t. He clarifies that his aloofness with her was due to the house’s painful associations, not a dislike of her. Before leaving, Henry kisses Lou on the front porch under the moonlight and tells her he’s been beside himself with wanting her.

Lou wakes on the couch the next morning to find Shani, a surprise guest, at the door, early for check-in with her shih tzu, Alfalfa, strapped in a carrier. Despite the no-pets policy, Lou agrees to accommodate them after seeing Shani’s distress. Quinn comes downstairs, asking questions. When Bea and Kim arrive for their farewell breakfast, they finally recognize Lou as Nate Payne’s ex-girlfriend and call her Purple Girl from his song. Lou deflects by asking for feedback on the inn; they give a glowing review and leave.

When Shani returns at noon, Alfalfa attempts to eat a spider in the driveway and spits it out. His mouth rapidly swells from an apparent allergic reaction. Lou calls Henry in a panic, telling him the spider he saved has attacked someone’s dog.

Lou, Quinn, Nan, and a hysterical Shani rush to Henry’s veterinary clinic. Receptionist Rita directs them to an exam room immediately. Henry and his vet tech, Jorge, enter, and Henry is professional and calm, his eyes softening when he looks at Lou. He tells her he’s glad she called. Henry and Jorge take Alfalfa to the back for treatment while Shani confesses her ex-girlfriend fought her over keeping the dog, compounding her distress.

Lou takes Quinn to the bathroom, where photos of Henry’s animal clients line the walls. Quinn asks if Alfalfa will die; Lou assures him that Henry will save the dog. Jorge returns with a recovered Alfalfa wearing a felt daisy on his collar. After Henry gives aftercare instructions, he asks to speak with Lou alone. Quinn invites Henry to their temporary tattoo tradition before Nan takes him to the lobby.

Alone, Henry apologizes for his emotional state the previous night and admits he worried he had pressured Lou into intimacy after his confession. Lou reassures him that he did not. They kiss against the exam room door. Henry asks if she’s sure the growing intimacy is okay, given how recently things ended with Nate; Lou counters by asking about his ex-wife. He confirms the relationship is long over. Lou assures him her relationship with Nate was over long before it officially ended. Henry tells her he can hardly think about anything but her.

That afternoon, Mei returns home worried to find everyone gone. Lou explains the spider emergency while introducing Shani. On the back porch, Mei reveals her Denver trip was positive, and she’s decided to move back to Denver for good, planning to leave that Sunday. Though Lou will miss her support system, she chooses not to tell Mei about Henry before she departs.

On Sunday, after Mei leaves, Quinn reminds Lou about their tattoo plans with Henry. When Henry arrives, Quinn picks tattoos for everyone: a rocket ship for himself, a pterodactyl for Lou, and a Komodo dragon for Henry. As Lou applies Quinn’s tattoo, she watches Henry interact with him and feels profound sadness thinking of Henry’s lost life with Molly in this house. Under the counter, she touches Henry’s leg for comfort; he responds to her touch. Quinn carefully applies Henry’s tattoo to his forearm.

After Lou puts Quinn down for his nap, she finds Henry at the kitchen window watching Joss plant a new tree in the garden. Lou tells him he doesn’t have to stay if being in the house is hard; he says he wants to stay, and it’s hardest at night. Henry selects a constellation tattoo for Lou, and she leads him to the small first-floor bathroom for privacy. Lou exposes her hip, and Henry kneels to apply the tattoo. The situation leads to a passionate encounter, with Henry performing oral sex on Lou. As she begins to reciprocate, the doorbell rings, interrupting them.

Lou realizes Goldie has arrived early to pick up Quinn. Lou does not want Goldie to learn about her and Henry, given Goldie’s tendency to be suspicious of men she does not know. In her panic, she asks Henry to leave through the back door to avoid her sister. Just as Henry leaves, Lou notices a long pink scar on his sternum, which she reminds herself to later ask him about. Lou lets Goldie in.

Goldie is confrontational, questioning Lou’s flushed appearance and criticizing her for not reporting Quinn’s minor fall at the park. The conversation turns into an argument about the Comeback Inn and Lou’s career. To end it, Lou reveals she’s booked her licensing exam for December. Goldie is unimpressed, worrying that Lou is taking care of others to avoid dealing with her own life. After Goldie and Quinn leave, Shani comes downstairs, having overheard the bit about Lou not being licensed. Lou confirms this is true, feeling ashamed. Shani is unbothered, but Goldie’s accusation that Lou avoids her own problems by taking care of others resonates deeply with Lou.

Later that week on Halloween, a party of six women led by Willa checks in for an “un-bachelorette party” for their friend Lucy, whose fiancé called off their engagement. The group brings lively energy to the house. Meanwhile, Henry hasn’t responded to Lou’s texts for four days, leaving her anxious. Lou worries that she may have upset Henry by asking him to leave when Goldie arrived. She goes out to the garden to distract herself and meets Joss. Joss mentions that Henry hates the new pine tree she has planted and that she saw him leave in a hurry on Sunday. Reminded again that she may have hurt Henry’s feelings, Lou calls Mei and frantically explains the situation with Henry and Goldie. Willa interrupts the call, insisting that Lou join her group at a bar called Ophelia’s Saloon.

At the packed bar, Lou texts Henry again, asking him to come over. Henry finally responds, asking Lou if she’s been drinking. When she confirms, he agrees to join her. Henry arrives looking out of place in the chaotic environment. Lou apologizes for kicking him out, and Henry accepts her apology before offering his own for not texting back, explaining he was processing his feelings and isn’t used to doing so with another person. They dance together, and Henry admits he partly came to the bar to ensure she wouldn’t drive drunk, but also because he misses her. He reveals he’s leaving for his annual trip to Florida to help his parents and will be gone for the first half of November. He asks her to spend Thanksgiving with him when he returns. Lou agrees, and Henry promises to make the wait worthwhile.

On Thanksgiving, the Comeback Inn is empty. Lou drives to Henry’s condo, noting its sterile, impersonal quality compared to the house. They greet each other with a passionate kiss. Henry wonders if Lou asked him to leave through the back door on Goldie’s arrival because she’s ashamed of him. Lou explains that she was trying to protect their relationship from Goldie’s judgment. She explains that Goldie is distrustful of men and controlling because she grew up with their mother, who got into many bad relationships. Henry tells Lou he understands and shares his own complex feelings: his pre-holiday trips to Florida are to help his parents, but he leaves before the holidays get too heavy with memories of Molly.

While they prepare dinner, Nate’s “Purple Girl” comes on Henry’s playlist. Lou asks him to change it. Henry asks if the song is about her; she confirms it is. He tells her she’s never seemed purple to him and that the song is sad. They both admit to having been sad in the past, but not so much anymore.

After dinner, while eating pie on the couch, Lou begins to make love to Henry. Henry undresses Lou, bringing her to orgasm with his fingers before they move to a bed of blankets he’s made on the floor by the fire. They have sex for the first time. Afterward, Lou asks about the scar on his chest. Henry reveals it’s a tattoo replicating a surgical scar Molly had from heart surgery when she was two. He got it so she wouldn’t feel scared or different, but she died a few months later. Deeply moved, Lou kisses the scar. Henry confides that his hands still twitch to hold Molly’s when he crosses a street. Lou asks him to tell her something he loved about Molly. Henry says he loved everything about her, then changes the subject by kissing Lou, establishing a boundary. Later, as they fall asleep, Lou asks what color she is if not purple. He tells her she is yellow, like sunrise.