In Chap­ter 106, Patch arrives in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., feel­ing like an out­sider, yet deeply cap­ti­vat­ed by the city’s unique charm and ener­gy. The grandeur of the sur­round­ings con­trasts with his inner dis­com­fort, as he steps into the high-end steak­house where he is to dine with Sam­my. As they sit down for an extrav­a­gant meal, Patch is imme­di­ate­ly struck by the expen­sive nature of the din­ner, unsure whether the hefty price tag reflects the age of the steak or its sheer extrav­a­gance. Try­ing to keep things sim­ple, Patch orders a more mod­est dish, but Sammy’s play­ful teas­ing about his choice brings a touch of humor to the evening. Sam­my indulges in a bot­tle of cost­ly wine, rem­i­nisc­ing about a deal they made in the past, while Patch finds him­self lost in thought, reflect­ing on his own his­to­ry and the chal­lenges that con­tin­ue to fol­low him.

The mood of the din­ner shifts from light-heart­ed ban­ter to more seri­ous con­ver­sa­tions as Sam­my begins dis­cussing the grow­ing inter­est in Patch’s art. His recent suc­cess­es have not gone unno­ticed, and Sam­my seems eager to cap­i­tal­ize on this new­found atten­tion. How­ev­er, Patch, grap­pling with his finan­cial con­straints, resists Sammy’s sug­ges­tions to sell off fam­i­ly heir­looms, espe­cial­ly giv­en the emo­tion­al sig­nif­i­cance these items hold. His moth­er had always dreamed of own­ing their fam­i­ly home, and Patch can­not bear the thought of sac­ri­fic­ing that dream for a short-term gain. Sammy’s per­sis­tent attempts to encour­age Patch to part with his belong­ings reflect their dif­fer­ing atti­tudes toward suc­cess, wealth, and the val­ue of fam­i­ly her­itage. Despite this, their con­ver­sa­tion remains light-heart­ed at times, with Patch’s curios­i­ty shift­ing to a wait­ress named Melis­sa. Though he ini­tial­ly finds her appeal­ing, he is soon put off by how famil­iar she seems, caus­ing his inter­est to fade as quick­ly as it arose.

As the evening con­tin­ues, their con­ver­sa­tion delves deep­er into their per­son­al lives. Patch is intrigued to learn that his for­mer love, Misty Mey­er, has moved on to Har­vard, although she still works as a bar­tender. This rev­e­la­tion piques Patch’s curios­i­ty, as he reflects on their past rela­tion­ship and what could have been. Sam­my, eager to redi­rect Patch’s focus, prompts him to con­sid­er his cur­rent real­i­ty and the choic­es they both made in love and art. This tran­si­tion in their con­ver­sa­tion high­lights the com­plex­i­ties of life, where past loves and future aspi­ra­tions often inter­twine. Just as the din­ner reach­es its con­clu­sion, a wait­ress slips her num­ber into Patch’s pock­et, a ges­ture he ulti­mate­ly dis­miss­es. After exit­ing the restau­rant, he dis­cards her num­ber with­out a sec­ond thought, per­haps reflect­ing his own inter­nal con­flict between fleet­ing con­nec­tions and his deep­er emo­tion­al needs.

Lat­er that evening, Sam­my takes Patch back to his pent­house in a taxi, and Patch is imme­di­ate­ly struck by the lux­u­ri­ous sur­round­ings that seem so far removed from his own real­i­ty. The opu­lence of the pent­house stands in stark con­trast to the sim­plic­i­ty Patch has grown accus­tomed to, leav­ing him to con­tem­plate the vast dif­fer­ences in their lifestyles. Sam­my, now heav­i­ly intox­i­cat­ed, begins to rem­i­nisce about a Mark Rothko paint­ing he pur­chased in his youth. As he reflects on his own artis­tic jour­ney, Sam­my shares how his pas­sion for art led to finan­cial suc­cess, but the dif­fer­ences in their per­spec­tives on wealth and love become appar­ent. While Sam­my sees art as a means to attain wealth and sta­tus, Patch is more focused on the emo­tion­al res­o­nance and per­son­al mean­ing that art can bring. As Sam­my drifts into sleep, Patch is left alone with his thoughts, gaz­ing out at the moon­lit city. The enor­mi­ty of the world before him weighs heav­i­ly on his mind, but with it comes a grow­ing resolve to recon­nect with his lost love. He silent­ly vows to search for the con­nec­tion that once gave his life mean­ing, the promise of some­thing deep­er now bloom­ing inside him as he con­tem­plates the path ahead.

This chap­ter is an explo­ration of Patch’s inter­nal con­flict, as he nav­i­gates the stark con­trasts between his per­son­al val­ues and the world of wealth and art that sur­rounds him. While Sammy’s lav­ish lifestyle rep­re­sents a ver­sion of suc­cess that Patch feels dis­con­nect­ed from, the chap­ter also high­lights Patch’s long­ing for some­thing more meaningful—his search for true con­nec­tion, both in love and in art.