Two Years Ago

“Two Years Ago” introduces a memory of an early effort to build a relationship between Hannah Hall and Bailey Michaels. In Los Angeles, amid outings planned by Owen Michaels, Hannah’s warm attention to Bailey’s blue dress meets a more complicated reality: Bailey enjoys the places they visit, but not having Hannah there with her.

The Time Marker and Point of View

The heading places the scene two years before the surrounding present and signals a move into Hannah Hall’s recollection. She narrates in the first person, looking back on a period when she and Bailey had met several times but had not yet settled into ease together. The scene’s retrospective position gives the passage a double focus: it records a family outing as it happened and shows Hannah recognizing, in retrospect, how resistant Bailey remained to spending time with her.

An Outing Meant to Bring Them Together

Hannah is in Los Angeles to work with a client on a house in the Venice Canals. Owen sees the trip as an opportunity for Hannah and Bailey to spend time together, and their dinner at Felix in Venice comes as part of a weekend that includes seeing Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl. Bailey loves the concert and the Italian restaurant, yet Hannah notes that she does not love doing these things with Hannah present. The distinction gives the outings their emotional tension: the activities succeed, but the hoped-for closeness does not follow automatically.

A Small Gesture Against a Larger Distance

At dinner, Hannah compliments Bailey’s dress and singles out its shade of blue. The gentle attention is concrete and affectionate, but it does not erase the discomfort Hannah has described. The memory holds both facts in view: Owen is making room for the two of them to connect, and Hannah is trying to meet Bailey warmly, while Bailey still resists the relationship the weekend is meant to encourage. That contrast makes the scene a measure of how much effort closeness requires at this point in their lives.