# Surprise Audit - Chapter 08

- EXPECTED MOVE: Theo tries to hide/destroy the panel and ends by keeping it. This is the card's overt engine.
- SURPRISING MOVE THAT WORKS: the pressure to keep the panel comes less from romantic longing than from Sonia's ordinary table systems: saved seat, pickle memory, standing Tuesday plan, Luis's radiator fact. Evidence: "There was a saved seat" (line 39); "I remembered" (line 45); "People come back to warm rooms" (line 99).
- WHY IT IS NOT RANDOM: the cohort adoption has been built through Ch03 Sonia's invitation, Ch04 table story, Ch06 off-Tuesday walk, and Ch07 shared class evidence.
- WHY IT RAISES READER DESIRE: the table plan extends social belonging beyond the eight-week class while the fake arrangement still has an expiration date in writing.
- NEAREST DEFAULT: a private romantic reverie over June's portrait. The chapter avoids this by making the painting ugly/partial and socially costly. Evidence: "It was not a good painting" (line 9); "The arm was still wrong" (line 109).

Chapter verdict: SURPRISE-PRESENT.

REVISION ORDERS: none.
