The Quiet Tenant

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes descriptions of captivity, physical abuse, assault, kidnapping, and accidental harm to an animal.

This section begins from Emily’s perspective. Emily revels in her text relationship with Aidan, assigning meaning to the fact that he types full sentences instead of utilizing abbreviations. Aidan asks to come to Amandine after-hours; Emily notices that he is carrying the duffel bag he often totes with him. She avoids telling him what she truly wants to reveal: that she has been lonely all her life, always feeling second in importance to Amandine, her parents’ true passion. Now, Aidan grasps her arm, and she leads him into the pantry, where they have sex. They usually conceal their increasing intimacy each time he visits Amandine, but on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Aidan gives Emily a necklace: a silver infinity pendant with a piece of rose quartz affixed to the back. On Thanksgiving Day, Emily uses leftover cookies as an excuse to see him and texts that she is coming to his house to deliver them. He seems frazzled, asking her to park around the corner so as not to wake his daughter, rationalizing that it is Cecilia’s first Thanksgiving without her mother.