Previously on Reflected in You, Cary got the shit beaten out of him for conflicting reasons. At first, we’re told no one (including Cary) knows why he was beaten up, but then in like the same sentence Cary is like, “I put my dick in the wrong chick.” So either we don’t know what exactly the reason is, or we know exactly the reason. Who knows when we’ll find out, though, this book takes so long to reveal information that you forget what the standing mysteries are in the first place.
Chapter 13
So everything was totally fine with Eva and Gideon last chapter. He was really supportive and helpful about the Cary situation. But now, 24 hours later, Eva is worried because Gideon has been busy.
Eva heads off to work, and a few minutes later Gideon calls, furious because Eva just left for work and didn’t wait for Gideon’s driver to pick her up. Eva’s like, “Dude I wasn’t sure if he was coming or not and, you know, I have to get to work.” Gideon is furious she didn’t call. How is this even a legitimate conflict? How is Gideon not just like, “Oh that makes sense, in the future just assume he’ll be there, and I’ll let you know otherwise. Have a good day, babe!”
Within the next page, major things begin to happen. Well, major by this series’ standards.
Eva sees in the news that last night Gideon was out on the town with Corinne (his former fiancée). While Eva is starting to get really worked up about this, Brett Kline (Eva’s ex who is in that band and wrote a song about how awesome her blow jobs are) shows up at Eva’s office to see her. Is Brett fucking stupid? Isn’t he even slightly worried this will get him beaten up again? Like. He was severely beaten up by Gideon before, so he comes to the conclusion that it’s a good idea to go to Cross Industries to try to talk to Eva again. Riiiiight.
While at lunch, Brett and Eva find out their quasi-relationship ended because of a misunderstanding. Brett wanted more from Eva, Eva wanted more from Brett, but neither of them knew! In fact, the last time they ever hung out, they were at a pool hall with Brett’s band and Eva overheard him talkin’ shit or something. They don’t go into specifics, but here’s Brett’s explanation:
“I’d been with you a few times by then. Bringing you along to the pool hall made a statement to the guys that things were picking up between us.” He rubbed at his brow in a very familiar gesture. “I didn’t have the balls to own up to how I was feeling about you. I made it about the sex, but that wasn’t true.”
He took her to a pool hall? Jesus, Eva must be the dumbest fuck in the world not to realize Brett meant business about her.
Then Brett begs for another chance. Eva’s his muse after all!
While this conversation is going on, there’s also this really weird, threatening imagery with steak. Here’s what I mean:
Brett started cutting into his steak, attacking it really.
[…]
I bent over and said firmly, “There’s no chance. None.”
Brett stabbed his fork into a slice of his steak. “Prove it.”
He sounds violent and forceful enough to be a romantic interest in this series, so this really might not be the last we see of him.
After Eva returns, Gideon yells at her right on queue. He’s all mad that Eva doesn’t trust him about Corinne and that he did it knowing it would upset her. I’m with Eva on this one, why wouldn’t she be mad that he was like, “I understand your jealousy now,” and then did this anyway! I mean, I’m sure that he’s got some reason for doing all this that Day thinks is perfectly reasonable, and that we’ll find out what it is eventually, but Gideon should be less of a piece of shit about it.
Gideon moved to the other bank of elevators and pushed the call button. With his back to me and his attention on the indicator arrow, he said, “Angus will pick you up every morning. Wait for him. And I prefer that you eat lunch at your desk. It’s best if you’re not running around right now.”
“Why not?”
“I have a lot of things on my plate at the moment—”
“Like dinner with Corinne?”
“— and I can’t be worrying about you,” he went on, ignoring my interruption. “I don’t think I’m asking too much.”
He tells her she was behaving “appallingly” today. I don’t think it’s fair to say that just for going to lunch with Brett after what he did. God, I fucking hate Gideon!
This chapter is shockingly (and mercifully?) short. Eva goes to complain to Cary about everything we just read. She calls Gideon, and he’s really vague, someone is clearly with him the room, and he’s pretty dismissive of Eva, though he does annoyingly call her Angel still. So get excited for next week when we read more of Eva and Gideon’s fight about nothing?
Is it possible to beat sense into a fictional character?
Why can’t anyone in these novels ever communicate? It would save us from a lot of unnecessary and terribly plotted out drama and might make room for something to actually happen.
I wonder if Day is writing any sliver of this from actual relationship experience. Does she really believe that communication can possibly be this shit between two people?
Hahaha LOL at “He sounds violent and forceful enough to be a romantic interest in this series, so this really might not be the last we see of him.”
I kind of hope it, I think Brett is so ridiculous it’s funny, and I’m dying to know what other songs his band made apart from the blowjob one. However, I never read explicitly that it was really about a blowjob
I hope their next hit is about steak and blowjobs. I think there’s probably a lot of porn out there about that already, but Brett could really have something new in the genre!
Is it explicitly about blow jobs? Not really, but with lines like “Later, you’ll drop to your knees” and “I could have you in the bar or the back of my car”, we’re not really dealing with the most creative use of metaphor here.
“He sounds violent and forceful enough to be a romantic interest in this series, so this really might not be the last we see of him.”
LMAO. Might be the best line written here in a long time!!
These middle chapters really are terrible. In fact, this whole book was really terrible. I promise it all gets explained (in this book), but it doesn’t make it any less painful to have to endure it until then.
I caved last night and read spoilers for the book. Without spoiling things for anyone else, SERIOUSLY WTF! Sure, it’s explained, but couldn’t he have been just like, “Eva, I’m doing this all for a reason, and I’ll explain later. Trust me on this one.” Instead of being vague and dickish and awful! It doesn’t build suspense the way Day wants it to, it just makes Gideon reaaaalllly unlikable.
This chapter was so bad that not even Cary had anything particularly offensive or interesting to say.
I know, right? I won’t spoil it either but I completely agree with your assessment.
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