At the beginning of the story, the narrator describes, "the afternoon sunlight was like a presence in the room" (Carver 5). Their optimism about their conception of love develops into pessimism. At the end of the story, the narrator notes, “the blue layer of the sky had already given way and was darkening like the rest. But the stars had appeared. I recognized Venus and, further away and to the side, not so bright but unmistakably there on the horizon, Mars” (Carver