The narrator asks the reader to imagine what it must be like to be in love with someone else. He tells the reader that his coworker "rival corners" him with love in his dreams. The narrator then asks what the rival plans to do about it. The protagonist replies that he doesn't know, but he does know that the rival wants him to be alone with another man. He also says that the two of them haven't been seeing each other in a while, so he wonders if it'll be hard on the protagonist since he hasn't seen the rival since they last saw each other a while ago. He says that he's sure it will be fine since he loves feeling good about himself. He adds that he knows the rival works very hard to make sure that the girl he loves is with him, but that he can't see how the rival sees him like that. He then says that it's a good thing that the protagonist trusts his work, because he shouldn't believe that men always have ulterior motives. He goes on to say that men should be careful not to think that they have motives other than their own. He compares the protagonist's way of thinking to that of a creak in a book, and he says that if the protagonist is careful, he'll swallow him up.