- The narrator gets a letter from "a small university review to whom [he'd] sent a story" (6.1), and they want to publish it, even though they can't pay him for the piece. He's so excited he's "dizzy" (6.1), and races to Holly's apartment to share the good news. It seems pretty clear that he's come to value his friendship with Holly a great deal since she's now the first person he thinks to tell about being a published writer.
- When she answers the door, the narrator is too excited to talk so he just hands her the letter. After taking way too long to read it, Holly doesn't give the narrator the reaction he had hoped for. She tells him that he shouldn't let them publish his story without giving him some money for it (after all, this is the girl who demands money for going to the ladies room when she's out on a date. Of course she wouldn't publish something for free). In a surprisingly perceptive moment, Holly realizes that she has disappointed the narrator, and she quickly invites him to lunch to celebrate.
- While the narrator waits for Holly to get dressed, he gets a chance to see her bedroom (nothing seedy here – she just leaves the bedroom door open while she's getting ready in the bathroom). Her bedroom looks just like her living room, with "everything packed and ready to go, like the belongings of a criminal who feels the law not far behind" (6.3). The one big difference is that the bedroom has actual furniture in it – a bed. It's "a double one at that, and quite flashy: blond wood, tufted satin" (6.3). (What should we make of her fancy bed as the one piece of real furniture in the apartment? We're not exactly sure, but it seems like an important detail.)
- As Holly brushes her teeth, she tells the narrator that Mag is her new roommate and, even though she isn't a lesbian (which Holly would prefer), Mag is "the next best thing" (6.4) because she's "a perfect fool" (6.4). This means Holly can make her do all the chores and leave her with the lease if she decides to bolt all of a sudden (so maybe she hasn't really changed her mind about Mag but just sees her as easy to take advantage of).
- As this conversation continues, Holly digs around her messy room for her shoes, her shirt, and her belt. The narrator wonders how Holly is able to always look so polished and put-together despite the "wreckage" (6.6) of her room, and he describes her as always looking "pampered, calmly immaculate, as though she's been attended by Cleopatra's maids" (6.6).
- This chapter ends with a final, really sweet moment between Holly and the narrator. She "cup[s] her hand under [his] chin" and tells him, "I'm glad about the story. Really I am" (6.6).