"There are people following me," Ila said. "Two days now. They look like loan sharks."
"All you did was sign some papers," Shawn said. "So why would they be hunting you? Tell me the truth. Why is the Ocean Gang looking for you?"
"Did you deceive me?"
Shawn began to weave. She never believed him, he said, not once, not about anything, and yet he had done every single thing for her sake. He had given her his heart in such a way — how could a man who had done that deceive her?
And while he said it he was thinking: this gang of bastards is not as patient as I assumed.
"What did they say to you?"
"They don't know my address," Ila said. "I crossed the road twice to shake them off. But what is going on?"
"You're worrying too much. Maybe they mistook you for someone else."
Then Shawn deliberately switched the call to video, and tilted the phone, and let her see what was behind him.
"How do you still have food?" Ila said.
"This is only the tip of the iceberg. I've got much more of it than this."
She sat looking at it. This stifling heat had been going on for days now, and supplies had already become something that belonged strictly to the rich.
"There's nothing better than this in weather like this," Shawn said, and ate another spoonful of ice cream, and let us all forget that sugar only makes a person thirstier. Then he asked her, very deliberately, whether she had enough food at home.
Ila's dissatisfied face folded itself away and a different one came out. "I'm frightened here on my own," she said. "I still feel like they're following me. Maybe I could stay with you for a few days. We could spend some time together."
This was exactly what Shawn had been waiting for. His plan was working perfectly, which meant it was essential not to show it.
"It'll get even hotter soon," he said. "Going anywhere now is far too much trouble. Besides — haven't you always insisted that a girl should never give out her home address? You were always so secretive about it. You never once let me in."
"That was a long time ago. Everything's different now. You're my boyfriend. If you're going to protect me, then I don't mind."
"Then send me the address. I'll come for you this evening, when it cools down a little. Wait for me in the apartment. I won't be long."
Ila agreed and hung up.
Before, Shawn thought, she was arrogant and untouchable. She never even let me through the main gate — which, all things considered, is not surprising. Now everything is different.
The bell rang. He went and opened the door, and a woman was standing there.
"What's wrong?"
But instead of answering the question she pushed her face past his shoulder into the cool of the hallway. "Oh, it's so cold in here. Our air conditioner has broken, and the poor boy is nearly falling over from the heat. We're neighbours, after all. It's all right if we stay here for a bit."
Shawn, in his charming way, told her exactly what he thought of that, and threw an insult after it for the road.
Because he remembered. This was his aunt, who had insulted him when he was a child; whose security guards had chased them away from the gates like stray dogs. And now, suddenly, she had remembered that they were neighbours.
"That was so long ago!" the aunt shouted. "How can a person be so petty? Have you got one drop of decency in you? One drop of compassion?"
The aunt did not realise that she had, for the first time in her life, said something entirely correct.
Shawn had no intention of standing there while she finished. He shut the door. She went on yelling at it from the landing, and while she yelled, the points went quietly up.
It was time to finish the plan.
He took the SIM card out of his phone and put in a new one. He dialled the Ocean Gang and gave them Ila's address, and he made a point of adding that she was an easy target: she lived alone, and nobody would be coming for her.
The protagonist of this story handed a woman to those men himself, and of course he did not consider himself a bad person for it. The only thought in his head was that the show was about to start.
Ila, meanwhile, was getting ready for Shawn to arrive. She was thinking that he would fawn over her again, the way he always did, and that this time she would let him.
The doorbell rang. She opened it without a thought in her head, and then she went completely still.