One Year Ago
The Last Thing He Told MeOne Year Ago is a temporal marker for a flashback that shows Owen Michaels arriving unexpectedly at Hannah Hall’s workshop during the workday. The visit briefly brings his usually distant office life into Hannah’s creative space and reveals how readily he would choose to spend time there.
Narrative Placement
The heading places the workshop scene one year before the present narrative. It is a specific point in the novel’s retrospective timeline, not a precise calendar date; the evidence gives no month or day.
The Workshop Visit
Owen appears without warning in the middle of Hannah’s workday, an unusual move: he normally spends weekdays at the offices in Palo Alto and sometimes travels to downtown San Francisco for meetings. He is rarely home on a weekday unless Bailey needs him. Hannah greets his arrival with a joking question about whether he can simply drop in whenever he wants. Owen answers that he would be at the workshop constantly if he could, then asks what they are making. The exchange sets his ordinary schedule against his expressed desire to share Hannah’s working world.
