Richard Flynn and Laura Baines

This flow traces Richard Flynn’s swift, consuming love for Laura Baines from their first meeting through the contradictory memories that turn their intimacy into lifelong grievance.

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A Shared House

An Unexpected Housemate First Impressions Richard Flynn meets Laura Baines in the kitchen of the house they share. Her wit, confidence, and unpolished Midwestern manner immediately distinguish her from the world he feels alienated by at Princeton. At first, Richard does not approach her as a romantic possibility. He is simply intrigued by the prospect of sharing a home with a woman and by the mysteries he imagines that proximity might reveal. Growing Closeness Their conversations and evenings together make the house feel less lonely. They watch television, smoke, trade stories, and discover that even their differences in taste can become part of an easy companionship. Richard is already emotionally vulnerable: his father has died, his family has left Brooklyn, and he feels increasingly cut off from the life he once knew. Laura’s attention arrives at a moment when he is looking for somewhere to belong.

The First Night Together

From Friendship to Love A Changed Journey Home After meeting Joseph Wieder, Richard rides home with Laura carrying more alcohol than he can handle and a new sense of unease about the professor’s interest in her. Laura tells him that Wieder has been probing him for personal information, but Richard cannot tell whether her warning clarifies matters or makes him more suspicious. The journey ends in a quiet moment in the backyard. The pair share a cigarette without trying to define what has passed between them, and Laura leads Richard to her bedroom. A Private Certainty Their first night together develops without a formal declaration or negotiation. The following day they remain at home, making love and slowly becoming familiar with each other’s bodies and habits. Richard experiences the change as more than physical attraction. He believes he has finally found a love unlike anything he has known before, and he begins to treasure details of Laura as if remembering them might preserve the relationship indefinitely.

Jealousy and Trust

Trust Under Pressure An Explanation of the Past When Richard tells Laura that Joseph Wieder questioned him about their relationship and hinted that she had lied, she explains her history with Timothy Sanders. She says she ended that relationship after his jealousy and harassment became intolerable, and describes a visit to New York connected to Timothy’s therapy. Her account gives Richard a reason to reconsider his suspicion, but it also introduces a version of the past that he cannot independently verify. He is aware that Laura has kept parts of her life from him, even as she insists that those matters belong in the past. Choosing Belief Richard asks whether Laura has ever been involved with Wieder. She says no, and explains that the professor gave her keys to his house only for practical reasons. He wants to believe her and accepts that answer, even though his insecurity has not disappeared. Their renewed intimacy is built on a deliberate decision to trust. Richard’s love makes him willing to set aside the unease he feels about Laura and Wieder, a choice that will later make the relationship’s conflicting accounts more consequential.

Love Becomes a Performance

Affection and Distance A Moment of Shared Hope Richard’s short stories are accepted for publication by Signature, and he and Laura celebrate together at home. He feels that his writing ambitions and his future with Laura have suddenly become possible, imagining that their lives are moving toward a shared success. Yet Laura’s behavior is changing. She seems preoccupied, speaks less, and takes private calls that stop when Richard enters. Their physical relationship fades, leaving Richard with the sense that something is wrong but without an explanation he can confidently name. Unequal Intimacy For Richard, the relationship has become the emotional center of his life. He continues to spend his time with Laura even as she withdraws into her work and increasingly appears to be keeping him at a distance. What he understands as a mutual love may not mean the same thing to Laura. The gap between his devotion and her private intentions turns their closeness into a source of vulnerability, preparing the way for the suspicions that shape their final days together.

The Final Accusation

Love Recast as Betrayal A Fractured Account After Timothy Sanders visits the house, Richard becomes convinced that Laura has lied about her past and may have gone to Joseph Wieder instead of to a friend. He reads her earlier secrecy, her keys, and her changing manner as signs that he has been manipulated. Richard’s manuscript later presents their relationship as an intense love destroyed by concealed events. But Laura’s account to John Keller is sharply different: she says Richard was obsessed with her and that she never loved him. Neither account can simply settle what their intimacy meant to the other person. An Absence That Lasts On the night of Wieder’s murder, Richard goes to the professor’s house believing he may find Laura there and confront the truth. The next morning, Laura has disappeared from the shared home without saying goodbye, and Richard never sees her again. Decades later, Laura tells Danna Olsen that she and Richard had only been friends. Richard, meanwhile, is still described as speaking of Laura with anger and longing near the end of his life. Their bond survives less as a shared memory than as incompatible stories about what they were to each other.

October 1987, when Laura Baines moves into Richard Flynn’s house

Mid-November 1987, after Richard and Laura visit Joseph Wieder

Late November 1987, when Laura explains her past with Timothy Sanders

December 1987, after Richard’s stories are accepted by Signature

21–22 December 1987, from Richard’s confrontation with Laura to her disappearance