What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

(Carver 175) During this phase, when the sun is shining brightly, everyone seems to be filled with confidence, and it is demonstrated when Terri is insistent that Ed was in fact in love with her, however skewed his perception of love was, while Mel is equally confident to deny that Ed's behaviour was based on love.
             In the second phase, when "The afternoon sun was like a presence in this room, the spacious light of ease and generosity" the mood in the room begins to change. No longer are the couples just having a good time, as they are now slowly being overcome by a wave of uncertainty. We see that Mel, who was earlier so adamant in his beliefs, is now suddenly uncertain, asking everyone else "Am I wrong? Am I way off base?" about a subject that he was so sure about a few minutes ago. (Carver 177) His mood then changes further, becoming more irritable as time moves on, even going so far as to tell Terri "Will you just shut up for once in your life" when she begins to ask him whether he is drunk. (Carver 178) This also illustrates the change in Terri's mood, as she is no longer happy to just let Mel go on about his stories, and she begins to feel rather anxious about his behaviour. Along with this change in moods, the couples are now more open in their conversations as well, with Nick and Laura getting involved instead of being mere listeners. Laura is beginning to get intrigued by the subject matter and pipes in her opinion every so often while Nick explains to Mel about the less than glamorous side of being a knight. Another thing to note is that their confidence is slowly deflating, and this is illustrated by Mel's acceptance that there may have been love between Terri and Ed when earlier on he was adamant that there was not. Whereas in the first phase the point of discussion was centered on Ed, in this phase the topic seems to switch back and forth, from Mel's ex-wife, to an old couple that were involved in an accident, to the subject of knights as well as a worst case scenario of what would happen should one of them die.