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“You’re welcome, concession-stand girl,” he said, though of course he knew her name by then. She thought he was going to go in for a kiss and prepared to duck and offer him her cheek, but instead of kissing her on the mouth he took her by the arm and kissed her gently on the forehead, as though she were something precious. “Study hard, sweetheart,” he said. “I will see you soon.”
The scene seems sweet and mildly flirtatious. Even so, these lines contain hints of Robert’s true age and domineering nature. He has given Margot a nickname that has meaning only to him and that figuratively returns her to the subservient role in which he first met her. His kiss is more paternal than romantic and subtly stresses the fourteen-year gap in their ages, though Margot still thinks Robert is in his late twenties. His command—“Study hard”—is somewhat fatherly as he essentially dismisses her and sends her back to work. Margot misses these hints, but they foreshadow Robert’s later controlling behavior.
“Is that guy you were with tonight your boyfriend”
“???”
“Or is he just some guy you are fucking”
“Sorry”
“When u laguehd when I asked if you were a virgin was it because youd fucked so many guys”
“Are you fucking that guy right now”
“Are you”
“Are you”
“Are you”
“Answer me”
“Whore.”
Robert’s increasingly demanding texts to Margot, after he sees her at the bar with her friends, end the story and provide what is perhaps the least narratively mediated look at this character. These texts, and the six that precede them, are not interrupted by Margot’s thoughts or reactions or by a narrator’s commentary. Because this is the case, the texts reveal the least biased view of Robert, even though readers still have to infer what motivates his frantic texting. It may be anger or jealousy, especially because it is not likely a coincidence that, a month after appearing to accept the break-up text, Robert shows up in the bar in what he earlier described as the “student ghetto” and isn’t likely to frequent. It may be sincere confusion at being dumped after a sexual encounter he enjoyed and the fact that he shared his feelings openly afterward. The repeated “Are you” texts and the “Answer me” text suggest his desire to reassert control of the Margot “doll,” and when Margot doesn’t comply and respond, he labels her succinctly in a final act of aggression.
