The Edible Woman

Marian returns home from interviewing and takes a bath in the shared bathroom downstairs from her apartment. She walks to Peter’s apartment, stopping for groceries on the way to make dinner with him in case he doesn’t want to go out to eat. Peter is a lawyer quickly rising in rank in his firm; he lives in an apartment building that is still under construction. She uses her key to his apartment and occupies herself with looking at his collections of cameras and hunting knives while he’s in the shower. He has her join him and they have sex in the bathtub. Marian considers how uncomfortable it is without saying so to Peter. She reflects on how their relationship proceeded after meeting each other at a party following Marian’s undergraduate graduation; she believes that Peter considers her “the kind of girl who wouldn’t try to take over his life” (61) and is careful to perpetuate that characterization. For herself, she describes Peter as a “pleasant habit" without any desire to make their arrangement more serious.