The Husbands

Lauren decides that she will try to bump into Carter that night instead of going to the bonfire. She buys a new dress and gets her makeup done, then researches all of the rooftop bars in Denver.

She spots him at the third one she visits and takes a seat at the bar with a book. She strikes up a conversation with another female patron who is there with a group of friends. Lauren continues to interject herself into the woman’s conversation until she is invited to join the group. Once she is immersed in the group, she approaches Carter.

He does not immediately recognize her, but then politely makes small talk. Lauren tries at various times throughout the night to engage him in conversation, but he quickly dismisses her. Before he and his friends leave, Carter approaches her to say that he senses she is interested in him but that he feels she should find a new realtor.

Back at the hotel, Lauren has a message from Amos: He is ready to sign the divorce papers and plans to move to New Zealand.

Lauren decides that she must get rid of Amos. She is tired of dating and ready for this life to end. She has agreed to meet him at a coffee shop to sign the divorce papers; he insists that meeting at her flat is not a good idea.

A few days before, Lauren devises a plan: She will drug Amos and somehow get him back to her flat so that he can ascend into the attic. She recalls that a drug-using former husband had a friend who kept substances hidden in his freezer. After a locksmith lets Lauren into his flat, she takes what she can find.

On the day of the meeting, Lauren arrives first, dissolving the drug into the coffee she has ordered for Amos. Their conversation is friendly, and Lauren buys him a second coffee, which she doctors. When he complains about not feeling well, she suggests a walk, then gives him juice from her purse to which she has added vodka. She convinces Amos to return with her to her flat to lie down.

Once there, she has great difficulty getting Amos to enter the attic. She tries telling him that he has left an expensive jacket there but he asks her to retrieve it for him. She tried calling Bohai for help, but he is not currently living in London and tells Lauren that he is engaged and truly likes the woman he has been seeing, so he is unwilling to climb back into the cupboard to end his current life. Finally, Lauren herself climbs into the attic. The lightbulb sparks and then breaks. She intentionally cuts herself on the broken glass and then calls for Amos to help her. Lauren is finally able to coax him to climb the ladder, exiting past him as he does.

Determined to find a husband she can commit to, Lauren cycles through dozens of them, replacing them every day or two. Each one has an annoying habit or trait that she cannot tolerate.

Lauren’s birthday is approaching, which means it has been nearly a year since husbands began appearing from the attic. She cycles quickly through a few until she finds one who has already scheduled a birthday dinner for 20 of them at a local pub.

Lauren thoroughly enjoys the birthday dinner, which is filled with all the important people in her life. When it ends, she is sad thinking about the reality that only she will remember it. She likes the current husband as a person but feels no spark with him, though she longs to settle into a life that will not change.

The task of cycling through husbands continues. Lauren is surprised to learn that Toby and Maryam are moving; she trades out the current husband, but the move is still occurring with the new husband. She hits upon one husband that she thinks she might actually like, named Adamm, but sends him back when he confesses that he is in legal trouble due to some practices at his job.

She is texting Bohai when a new husband arrives with a thump. He has fallen and injured himself while exiting the attic. Lauren calls Maryam, a doctor, who arrives, and then the husband is taken away by ambulance. Lauren agrees that she should follow the ambulance to the hospital but takes her time in collecting items she thinks the husband might want at the hospital.

Toby sits with Lauren in the hospital waiting room until they learn that her husband, whose name is Zach Ephron—which Lauren notices is aurally identical to that of the actor Zac Efron—has a spinal injury and will have surgery the next day. He is in the hospital for nearly two weeks, during which Lauren learns how popular and beloved he is by his many friends as well as her own friends and family. She finds him ordinary and dull and cannot discern why everyone adores him so much.

Upon his release from the hospital, Lauren cares for him in the flat as he cannot walk. She is surprised by how kind and appreciative he is and begins to feel guilty for injuring him.

Zach heals but refuses to enter the attic, still traumatized. Lauren settles into a life with him where he works from home and continues to take codeine for the pain. Bohai and his fiancée, Laurel, come over. When they are alone, Lauren asks him why he has decided to stick with Laurel. He explains what he likes about her and then confides that she is expecting a baby. Bohai is so committed that he even plans to destroy the chest from which he entered into Laurel’s life to prevent him from ever returning.

Lauren continues to coax Zach into the attic but has no success.

Lauren devises a plan to force Zach into the attic. She takes the train to Felix’s mansion, enters with the code, and steals Vardon’s air rifle. As she is leaving, she is confronted by Felix’s current wife and as she runs back to the train station, she discovers she has dropped her phone.

Lauren hides the air rifle in a badminton racket bag—also acquired from Felix’s home—and Zach doesn’t notice it when she enters. She tells him she is going to take a bath and spends some time rewatching videos on how to use the gun from the bathroom.

When she enters the living room with the gun pointed at Zach, he initially thinks it is merely a water gun. To prove it is real, Lauren fires it. She threatens to shoot him unless he goes into the attic, promising all will be fine after he does. Just then Toby arrives. Lauren trips and accidentally shoots him. She threatens Zach further until he finally makes his way slowly up the attic ladder. Toby approaches Lauren to take the gun away from her but disappears once Zach is completely inside the attic.

Alone, Lauren feels sick. She vomits, then runs into the yard. Toby is next door and has no memory of being shot by the air gun. Lauren continues to vomit while Toby asks if she is okay. Her new husband appears outside. It is Amos.

Lauren remains outside for a while, deciding what to do. She can continue enduring husband after husband, or she can make up her mind to settle on one of them, regardless of who he is. Deciding on the latter, she goes inside and asks Amos to retrieve a blanket for her from the attic.

Lauren leaves her flat with her cell phone and other important items before the new husband can appear. At a bar, she sends him a message saying she is babysitting. She learns his name is Sam. She calls her sister and asks what advice she would give her to improve her life. When Natalie’s suggestions are all rather minor, Lauren ends the conversation and then leaves the bar.

From outside of her flat, she sends Sam a message asking him to run out to pick up something for her. When she sees him leave, Lauren enters the flat. She heads to the attic and stays there as the lights pop and burn and she begins to smell smoke.

The narrative switches to Sam’s point of view. He is leaving the shop and finds their flat on fire. He phones Lauren—who is supposedly babysitting at Natalie’s home—but gets no answer. Toby appears and tells Sam that it was Lauren who phoned the fire station. He then sees her sitting on the curb with a bag full of their passports and other important things, along with her plant. They make jokes about the fire and about how angry Natalie will be. She asks him if he prefers a life where they had never married and he still owns all his possessions or this one, where they are married but he has lost everything in a fire. Sam says he would choose to be married to Lauren.