The Wait Never Ends

For four years of marriage, Cillian Newberry's answer to everything has been "wait." Travel can wait, anniversaries can wait, visiting Margaret's parents can wait. On her birthday, he promises to be home for dinner, then never arrives. Instead, a news broadcast shows him holding an umbrella over another woman, his childhood sweetheart, Beau Vox, while the rain soaks his own shoulder.

Margaret lights her own candles, makes a wish that has nothing to do with him, and boards the last train to her hometown alone. When Cillian finally calls, she tells him she is homesick, then calmly asks for a divorce and hangs up.

On the train, a young journalism student named Anna McBride asks about the ring Margaret wears, and Margaret reveals it was never meant for her.