These chipped and weathered people, answering something in one another that isn't just greed or lust. Her obfuscating motormouth and the one full-throated fuck! he lets out in deeply humane frustration. His peculiar, battered dignity and her matter-of-fact confidence that has the desired effect even when it's flim-flam. Awww... I like them. (I was inclined to like *her* after your description of her putting her arm round the shoulders of the other woman, and him when you said he offered her the money.