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Robert reminds Margot that he has cats, as he laboriously unlocks the house door. The front room reassures Margot that they have things in common—books, games, art. Yet she can’t help but think that the house hides something terrible. Robert pushes her toward the bedroom, where his mattress sits on the floor in a mostly bare room. He drinks from a whiskey bottle and offers it to her while he undresses clumsily, forgetting to take off his shoes before he drops his pants.
When Margot sees him stooped over, his stomach hanging down, she wants to leave. Yet she is exhausted by the thought of what it would take to stop events, so she drinks whiskey to blunt her feelings. When Robert lies on top of her, groping and kissing her in a suffocating fashion, she can’t keep up the act. Getting on top of him, she tries to guide his actions in a more pleasant way. He handles her roughly, can’t get her bra off, and snaps at her to remove it. Then, he gazes at her with desire, which is what she most enjoys about sex—the way a man reveals his need. She imagines that he is thinking about how desirable she is and begins to enjoy herself, until he touches her too roughly.
Robert suddenly asks whether Margot has had sex before. She laughs at his naïveté, then apologizes and assures him that she is experienced. Stung, he almost loses his erection, but he carries on, repositioning Margot, whose revulsion deepens, like some sort of doll. When he finally finishes, she wonders about the person, surely not her, who has put herself through this ordeal. Margot imagines a boyfriend with whom she could someday laugh about the evening. When Robert confesses that he feared she would go back to her high school boyfriend while home, Margot feels hatred. She asks his age, and he replies hesitantly that he is thirty-four. Predawn, he drives her back to her dorm and forces one more kiss on her.
After a long sleep, Margot wakes, anxious about how to end the relationship with Robert, whose texted Red Vine jokes now repel her. She drafts messages but can’t bring herself to send a break-up text. Her roommate, Tamara, finally grabs Margot’s phone and sends a badly typed text telling Robert that the relationship is over. Margot feels sick as she awaits Robert’s response. To her relief, Robert wishes her well, and the texts stop. She wonders if she has judged him unfairly.
But a month later, Margot sees Robert in a bar popular with undergrads—and the texts begin again. At first, Robert texts that he hopes Margot is well, but as she and Tamara watch the incoming texts without responding, Robert’s tone becomes plaintive, frustrated, then abusive. He demands to know whether Margot is having sex with a student who was in the bar, and when Margot doesn’t reply, he finally texts, “Whore.”
