Then he meets an earnest young fellow from Buffalo (Jonny Orsini) at the Automat, hauls the boy home for a tumble and, very much to his surprise, falls in love.
It's a quality, he points out, that has inspired artists like Edward Hopper, who returned repeatedly to the empty warmth of road cafes and petrol stations in paintings like Gas and Automat.
Love comes into his life or at least it seems that way when a younger, down-on-his luck man called Ned shows up at the automat and gets picked up by Miles, a complexly written character who staunchly defends the Republican Party despite the cultural crackdowns.