Summary

The narrator’s students read their “assignments aloud” (93). When it is Jay’s turn, he does not want to share. The narrator worries he is too sensitive, convinced the American education system “enable[s] depression and foster[s] mental illness” (94). She has pain too but does not complain about it.

Curls emails the narrator about getting dinner. After they go out, they have sex at Curls’s apartment. The narrator goes home to Trenchcoat, relieved that Curls is not offended.

The week before Paris, the narrator and Trenchcoat visit the Prada on Madison. They are doing recon work for Trenchcoat’s upcoming job in Paris. He will be buying designer bags for his client Ivan so they can resell them. Afterwards, they get food at an expensive hotel. The narrator is disappointed when Trenchcoat does not suggest they get a room there.

That...