p. 136

Eric notes in pencil

connections come back to bite you in the ass.

Although this note might seem recent due to Eric’s negative experience with Ilsa and Moody, he wrote it when he was a teenager. He tells Jen he is proud of his younger self for “being so astute.” and she asks in a later round of notes:

And now?

Honestly? I don’t know what I’d  do without this connection. (with you.)

(I inferred that.)

So let’s meet.

You wrote four variations on “let’s meet” on this pass.

Um, that’s because I want to meet.

Before that, Jen had dropped a hint by writing

I wish  S. would wake the hell up.

in response to the following passage:

“You don’t see any connection? That is to say, any connection between your search for her and such notions of connections? You don’t feel something?”

This interaction shows how their affection for one another has grown but also how Eric is still unable to let his anxiety or fear go and actually meet Jen.