Virgil’s smile and insistence on getting her to admit what the dream was about seem to indicate that he knows more than he’s letting on. Noemí’s feelings about Virgil are a mixture of desire and repulsion—she thinks his behavior is abhorrent, but he’s attractive and seductive. Perhaps these confused feelings are the result of society’s repression of women; because women are shamed for experiencing or talking about sex and desire, women like Noemí are woefully underprepared for dealing with this type of behavior. She knows that Virgil’s advances were wrong and unwanted, yet she was still aroused.