Summary
Margot is a college student who works at an art-house movie theater. One day, while working the concession stand, she meets a customer named Robert. He buys a box of Red Vines, which amuses her, because they're typically an unpopular choice of movie candy. She has a habit of flirting with customers, which she developed as a barista, and even though she doesn't earn tips at the movie theater, initiating flirtatious conversations makes the time pass more quickly. She decides that Robert is cute—not cute enough for her to approach him in public, most likely, but cute enough that he's worth talking to during a boring shift. He is unaware of her flirtation, and pockets his change silently before heading into the movie. But he returns the next week, buys Red Vines again, and their dialogue continues. After seeing a second movie, he demands Margot's phone number.
Over the next several weeks, they develop an elaborate series of inside jokes, mainly about Red Vines. Robert is clever, and Margot gets a kick out of trying to make him laugh. However, their exchanges primarily take place over text message—they don't meet again in person for a while, but they maintain an enthusiastic text exchange. They rarely reveal personal information about themselves, instead opting to build their repertoire of jokes.
One night, during Margot's college reading period, Robert coaxes her out of her dorm to meet up. It's hardly a glamorous date—she meets him at a 7-Eleven in her pajamas. The initial plan is for him to buy her Red Vines, but they don't have any, so he buys her a Cherry Coke Slurpee and Doritos instead. Despite the seemingly inherent lack of romance of the situation, Margot flirts a little, finding Robert slightly dorky in an endearing way. He's a little overweight and has bad posture, but she conjures a lumberjack aura about him. He kisses her goodnight on the forehead, entreating her to "study hard, sweetheart." On the way back to her dorm, Margot recognizes the fluttery feeling in her stomach that signals the beginning of a new crush.
She then goes home for winter break. Over the break, she and Robert text constantly, trading jokes and especially stories about their cats. Robert has two cats, Mu and Yan, and Margot had a childhood cat named Pita. They begin jokingly referring to each other using the cats' names, hiding their real emotions behind cutesy cat nomenclature. Margot's parents notice that she is texting someone all the time, and joke that she might be having an affair.
Analysis
From the very beginning of the story, Margot is characterized as flirtatious, oftentimes not because she's particularly interested in the person she's hitting on. Rather, flirting is a fun way to occupy herself—a convenient way to pass time on a boring shift, or a way of seeing herself as sexy and intriguing. In her initial interaction with Robert, this is harmless: he's a stranger, and their exchange is predicated solely on Robert's uncommon love of Red Vines. Margot's flirtation initially doesn't register for Robert, which testifies to what might be considered below-average social skills: he isn't very perceptive, and brusquely pockets his change without continuing the conversation. However, when he returns to the movie theater a second time, he clearly remembers Margot, and after the second movie, gets her phone number. Margot's early evaluation of Robert is not that enthusiastic: she thinks he's borderline-cute but she essentially flirts with him out of habit or convenience.
Once they start texting, however, the line between Margot's convenience-flirting and genuine attraction to Robert begins to blur. She learns that he's really clever, and feels good about herself when he laughs at her jokes. She realizes that he is not easily impressed, making her crave his approval even more. Sometimes, their exchange fizzles out for a day, and she wonders if they'll stop talking. At this nascent stage in the flirtation, there's still a lot of potential for Robert to lose interest, and Margot doesn't feel smothered.
Their text-message exchanges lack personal details, instead opting to construct a series of shared jokes. Most of these have to do with Red Vines, riffing off the one bit of personal information they've gleaned from their shared experience. Nonetheless, Margot finds these riffs exhilarating.
The Red Vines joke reemerges when Robert asks Margot to meet up. Margot complains about not having any food at home, and Robert offers to buy her some Red Vines to sustain her. The fact that they both continue leaning on this joke suggests they don't know much else about each other, but nevertheless, Margot eventually agrees to meet him at the 7-Eleven. This interaction lacks the romance of a real "date," which is exemplified by the fact that Margot goes in her pajamas, with a coat haphazardly thrown on top. She thanks Robert for buying her snacks, and tries to rationalize whether she's attracted to him. She finds him kind of dorky, but in a cute way that reminds her of a lumberjack. There's certainly no burning attraction, but she manages to pick out a handful of features that she might like. However, she doesn't want to kiss him goodnight, and prepares to deflect him if he tries to kiss her on the lips. Instead, he kisses her on the forehead, "as though she were something precious."
In this moment, Margot begins to feel attracted to Robert in a real way. Her attraction to him is rooted in the way she feels when she's around him: since he's older and a little dorky, she feels like a youthful, spritely, precious object by comparison. This dynamic will continue throughout their relationship: unable to conjure up much real attraction to Robert whenever they meet in person, Margot gets her kicks by seeing herself as (she presumes) he looks at her. Whether or not this is really how Robert feels, the reader never knows—what matters is that Margot thinks he sees her this way, and that self-evaluation through his eyes becomes the basis of her attraction to him.
While Margot is at home, her nonstop texting with Robert becomes a further basis for her attraction to him. From a distance, she is able to imagine a version of him that she's attracted to, and her feelings grow as she thinks about this fantasy crush. Their text exchange is clever and frictionless, absent the potential discomfort of real-life interaction. This is underscored when they start calling each other by their cats' names: texting allows for a kind of playful, jocular intimacy that might be awkward face-to-face. Despite texting all the time, however, they still don't know each other that well—but Margot is glued to the screen, eager for the adrenaline rush of easy communication.
