Status Updates From La stella del mattino

'You must be impatient,' a voice said behind me.
What?
I spun round. It was the guy who'd been staring at me. I'd thought he was somewhere in his twenties, only now I could see he was forty at least, if not fifty.
'Are you talking to me?' I said.
All he did was smile. He didn't look drunk at all. So what did he want? Was he a homo, or what?
"Yes,' he said. "There's no one else here.' p.351

'As the road swung north, the star was above us in the sky.
It was beautiful.
As beautiful as death was beautiful.
'We haven't talked about the new star,' I said. 'It's a bit weird.'
'Maybe,' he said. 'But you've got other things to think about.'
'Yes,' I said.
There was a silence.' p.299

'He was sitting with his back to the door in that big ergonomic office chair of his, in the same grey shorts and black T-shirt he'd had on all week.
'Everything all right, love?' I said.
He swivelled halfway round in the chair and looked up at me.
He was different, I could tell straight away. It was written all over him.
'Yes,' he said, and smiled. 'Now it is.'
Had something happened? What had happened?' p.257-8