Dan had disappeared into the bathroom to use a douche bulb before inviting Taylor to take his clothes off and join him to fuck bareback in the steam shower. In truth, Dan had liked it more than Taylor did. He was already smitten with the new lover he had found in Taylor. Taylor did it more to guarantee himself a dram of security with Dan as well as to secure himself a position of power over him. Something about it felt like a protective measure, except that protection worked both ways. If he could secure Dan’s attachment, he would have some measure of safety and control over with Dan himself. He could also use Dan and his wealth as a kind of shield protecting him from the world. The fact that Dan had traveled the road of being gay and of making a success out of himself in the world long before Taylor had made Taylor feel less vulnerable. In order to fuel Dan’s interest, Taylor had declined to stay the night, but promised to see him again and took off on foot before the sun had begun to sink below the horizon.

When Aria and Taylor finished eating, they parted ways. Having spotted a donut shop, Taylor decided to go in to ask if they had any day-old goods they might be willing to part with before he went to the nearest gas station in order to elicit spare change from the customers. Aria went back to the car lot. On her way there, a thought crossed her mind. If someone had managed to sneak into the lot to put items on the car, that meant they were probably watching to see when she and Taylor left. So, the surest way of finding out who the person was would be to fake that she was leaving and make a stake-out in the woods to watch over the car.

On the first day that Aria faked leaving the lot, only to hide out and watch over it, no one came. She regretted having wasted a day that she could have spent out finding food. But curiosity drove her back to her hiding place the next day. The sunset had turned the clouds a violent fuchsia. The trees had become soft silhouettes against it. Having sat so long waiting, Aria’s mind wandered to some imaginary landscape in which it could entertain itself, until movement in the car lot arrested her attention. She squinted in an attempt to see more clearly and could not believe her eyes. The man who was jogging toward the Land Cruiser, a bag of items in his hands, was none other than the man who had been tending the little market by the church. Overwhelmed with dizziness, she watched him line the items up across the hood of the car.