"Not at all. I was always a good kid who liked sharing my toys. And it's always been interesting to me to think about two men at once."

"...if you wanted to see that in person... I can't promise I could arrange that but. Someday I might find someone willing."

Somewhere in the distance Ruby feels a great disturbance in the force.

"Thank you. For all of this. It means so much to me."

"I'm happy to help."

And now she is going to thank him properly.

He's still a bit... distracted, by that first damsel who turned out not to be in distress, but-- he's not going to think about her. Or the way Evie is acting like her. Because there's a good chance he's just being a weird paranoiac and he should stop thinking about it and let her be nice to him.

Meanwhile--

"How have you been?" Hannah asks when he returns home from the store.

Unfortunately there is no way of explaining the events of the past few days to Hannah without scaring her. "I'm fine," he says. "I made a decent sale today."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, that edition of Dracula I told you about? And a Dickens. A Christmas Carol-- you know how people love that one." Somehow he forgot to Jing Yi that these weren't the cheapest versions available.

"I suppose it's that time of year." She looks tired. "I wish we earned less money from it. A Christmas Carol is capitalist claptrap."

"It's garbage and I don't mind overcharging people for it."

"They might end up believing it!"

"That'd be the least of his problems... I didn't tell you, it was Jing Yi."

"I thought he was banned from the shop?"

"I felt a bit bad turning him away since we're supposed to be on the same side of the Roby case."

"And because he was going to buy books for twice as much as they'd cost in an ordinary store."

"You know me and my shrewd business sense."

"Is that why the shop is constantly in debt."

"It's a joke, Hannah."

"I know, I wasn't trying to-- whatever. Dickens."

"I have the new IWW paper if you want to read it. The chapter election is coming up soon?"

"I still haven't finished last week's, although I suppose at some point the news is going to be out of date. That's how news works."

"Okay. I was hoping to talk to you about the candidates at some point... I know I'm not voting for Whitehouse, though. Bastard."