Summary

In Chapter XVIII, the narrator and Vladimir drank and cooked together. Then they decided to message John about his hearing. They stopped responding when Vladimir started touching her. Initially hesitant, she tried giving in to the moment. However, when he called her professor, she was turned off and pulled away.

Sitting alone, she realized she had wanted Vladimir to let her “forget who [she] was” (207). Vladimir appeared and apologized. He thought she wanted the same thing. He was simply “acting out” the role she had given him (208). When she offered to drive him home, he said he wanted to stay to write. She agreed they could spend the next day working.

Vladimir came into the narrator’s bed that night. They had sex, the narrator’s back to Vladimir. He returned to his room afterwards.

In Chapter XIX, the narrator woke...