Summary

In the short story “Baby Arm”, the narrator is enjoying a purely physical relationship with a man named Gus who works at a large department store. Their relationship is limited to having sex and the narrator prefers to keep things this way – she feels anxious about the ingenuity of “all the getting-to know-you conversations”. (78) In one discussion, the narrator references the movie Mannequin, and to her dismay, Gus has never heard of the movie himself. They rent the movie on their way home and a couple of months later, Gus returns with a fiberglass baby arm as a gift. The narrator tells him that if he is not careful, she may fall in love.

Gus and the narrator drink cheap wine and have sexual intercourse. Their dynamic is highly passionate, and the narrator thinks about her best friend Tate during these encounters.

Tate...