Audition

In the weeks that follow her lunch with Xavier, the narrator pays close attention to Tomas’s feelings. One morning, Tomas offers to walk the narrator to work, but before they have walked very far, he decides to return home and work on his writing. The narrator tries to convince him to accompany her longer, but Tomas insists on turning back. After he leaves, the narrator sees Xavier nearby. Xavier recognizes Tomas from the restaurant and deduces that he is the narrator’s husband.

Xavier informs the narrator that Anne has offered him a job as her assistant, replacing Lou. (He explains that this is what he wanted to tell the narrator at lunch before she abruptly left.) He claims to want to make sure that the narrator is comfortable with the idea that he will be working for Anne. Although the narrator wants to be alone to process the information, she agrees to walk with Xavier to the theater. At a café, Xavier holds the door open for her, a courtesy that she recognizes as part of another role that he is playing—that of the dutiful assistant.

The narrator mentions the interview that Xavier referenced at lunch, explaining that the journalist misrepresented her abortion.