Too Late

In an interrogation room, Carter tells Dalton that they can’t involve Sloan. Dalton says that it worked with Carrie, but now Carter is compromising their safety. Dalton wants him to use her feelings for him to their advantage. He suggests that Carter visit Stephen with her on Sunday. Asa won’t know since he doesn’t go with her. Dalton then reveals that he knows that Sloan is the girl from Spanish class and implies that she is why he registered Carter for the course.

Sloan is horrified by the unprotected sex and the marriage proposal. She makes a doctor’s appointment the next morning and worries because there’s no way to prevent herself from talking in her sleep.

Carter is waiting for her outside class. He notices the bruises on her neck. She realizes that she has been choked by two men within 12 hours. She knows that Carter hates the thought of Jon or Asa touching her but that he also understands why she’s there.

She takes him into an empty music room, and he hugs her. She tells him that she said his name while sleeping, and they agree that Carter can no longer talk to her at the house. He smiles and says that he’s had several dreams about her. When he tells her that she’s beautiful, it startles her. She thinks that this is what men are supposed to be like and this is how they are supposed to make women feel.

Carter passes her a note in class that says to put her hand under the table. He holds her hand while they study. She thinks it feels better than sex. He then moves his hand to her leg. When class ends, he says he can’t be near her without touching her and asks her to be careful until he can help her escape. Sloan wants to end her relationship with Asa, but she also needs Carter to leave his dangerous lifestyle.

Asa’s father told him that unless something benefits a man, it’s not worth his attention. He now applies this philosophy to everything, including his “empire.” He spent a year studying the drug trade and making connections. He learned how to build trust and hide in plain sight. Now he only sells premium drugs, avoiding small-time drugs like marijuana.

He's concerned that Carter is hard to read, and the situation with Jon is getting messy. Jon just lost one of their biggest clients by fooling around with the man’s wife. Jon also knows enough about Asa to make him a potential liability.

Asa realizes that he forgot to buy Sloan an engagement ring. When he sees Jon, he’s surprised to see that his face is bruised on one side. Jon says someone caught him with their girlfriend. Asa tells Jon to go buy a ring and is annoyed when Jon smiles. Asa laughs and then hits Jon on the unbruised side of his face.

Carter is more conflicted than ever. If he tells Sloan the truth, he risks their lives. He now knows that Asa would hurt her and her brother to keep control of her. Asa texts Carter and tells him to meet him for lunch. As they eat, Asa shows him a tacky engagement ring and announces that they’re celebrating that night. Carter doesn’t understand why Sloan didn’t warn him about the engagement.

Asa says that Sloan is like heroin. Carter mentions that he assumed they had an open relationship since he heard Asa talking about Jess. Asa says Carter’s problem is that he was raised by a woman. He makes a pseudo-scientific argument about why men aren’t built for monogamy and says that it is only a serious offense when a woman cheats, not vice versa. Men have a biological reason for multiple sexual partners, while women are more likely to cheat mentally and emotionally. Asa also says that men are better liars because of this evolutionary necessity. Finally, Asa asks Carter to give him a toast that night, and Carter agrees.

Sloan finds the ring on her dresser in a box. She thinks it’s too big and very ugly. Asa enters the bedroom and proposes on one knee before telling her about lunch with Carter. He might make him a groomsman, and he suggests Jess as a bridesmaid. Then he picks a dress for her and tells her to shower and do her hair. He likes her hair straight, as his mother had curly hair, but Carter likes curly hair, so she curls her hair instead. Sloan decides to figure out how to restart Stephen’s benefits without Asa finding out.

That night, Asa announces their engagement to the crowd downstairs as Carter stares at Sloan. Jess glares at her as Carter stands on a chair, winks at Asa, and makes a toast while drinking several glasses of champagne. He says,

Love is not found. Love finds…Love finds you in the forgiveness at the tail end of a fight. Love finds you in the empathy you feel for someone else. Love finds you in the embrace that follows a tragedy. Love finds you in the celebration after the conquering of an illness. Love finds you in the devastation after the surrender to an illness (150).

Sloan is moved. She knows that Carter found her amid tragedy. When the toast is over, Asa is glaring at her.

Asa quickly drinks six shots of alcohol. In the bedroom, he asks about Carter’s toast, which she says was confusing. He asks why she was staring at Carter if it was so confusing. Asa hates that Sloan is smart. It makes her less predictable. He asks if she wants to sleep with Carter. She holds up the ring finger and says to fire Carter if he is a bother. She tells Asa she loves him as he goes back downstairs, and he says it would be stupid not to.

Asa sees Carter flirting and making out with a woman downstairs. Asa touches her leg as he passes. She follows him outside five minutes later. Asa thinks Carter deserves this.

Carter asks Tillie—the woman who is on his lap—if Asa is gone. Tillie, another undercover officer, has worked with Carter before, but she usually does jobs with Dalton. Carter is drunk when he goes upstairs to Sloan’s bedroom. He takes her ring off and kisses her. She asks him to take her with him when he leaves. He says he can’t but that he will explain his reasons soon.

Sloan pretends to be ill until Sunday. She takes the ring off to visit Stephen while Asa is three hours away at a casino. She finds a new nonsense message on the whiteboard. Carter texts and says he wants to go with her to visit her brother. He also tells her never to respond to him on her phone and to delete the texts. Sloan doesn’t understand how Carter knows about her Sunday visits to Stephen. Before they leave, Carter asks that they not talk about Asa. He says they will just be Luke and Sloan. He corrects himself by saying that Luke is his middle name. They agree to pull over on the return trip and spend some time in the backseat.

Sloan says that Asa only visited Stephen with her once, two years earlier. Carter thinks it’s sad that she has no one to go with. He wonders if she could handle the truth about him, but it’s not time yet. They play the sentence game on the drive. Sloan says that she and Stephen communicate in their own way, which was necessary because she raised him. Carter kisses her, and they go inside the care facility.

Stephen wears a blank expression, and it hurts Carter to realize that “the one person in this world [Sloan] loves doesn’t have the capacity to express his love for her in return. No wonder she seems so lonely. She’s probably the loneliest person [Carter’s] ever met” (169). Sloan asks Carter to get ice for Stephen while the two of them play the nonsense sentence game, which Stephen invented. He doesn’t comprehend the words like they do, but she says he enjoys writing. Carter writes a note to Stephen saying that he is lucky to have an amazing sister. The three of them take turns writing notes for 10 pages.

Stephen taps Carter’s shoulder as they leave. He gives Carter a blank page and a pen. Sloan is stunned. Stephen never makes physical contact with anyone but her. This means he wants Carter to come back. Carter is glad he came, for many reasons.