Sometimes when we take half a week off, I forget that a huge portion of my life is regularly reading shitty books. It’s a weird place to find yourself in, let me tell you.
Chapter Fourteen
Pop quiz, bitches! Instead of telling you what happened in the last chapter, you are going to tell me!
Take Our PollTo be fair, this one’s more significant than the previous ones, since Eva opened up to Gideon about her past as an abuse victim and Gideon immediately didn’t open up about his own problems. But when are these two characters actually happy with each other?
Yes, I realize it’s when they have sex.
Gideon made no contact with me whatsoever.
Nothing on my smartphone or e-mail after my text last night. Nothing in my e-mail inbox. No interoffice note.
Basically, the theme of this chapter is Eva wonders when Gideon’s going to talk to her and she gets increasingly weird about it.
Eva Gets Increasingly Weird About It #1
Mark was meeting with Gideon today. Maybe that was why Gideon hadn’t felt pressed to contact me. Or maybe he was just really busy. I knew he had to be, considering his business calendar.
This is something we’ll be revisiting throughout the chapter, but it’s time for our favorite ineffectual villain, Magdalene Perez! Magdalene just shows up at Eva’s office.
Had the Bryant Park photos lured Magdalene out from under whatever troll bridge she called home?
I’m not totally sure what’s going on in this insult. Is she calling Magdalene a troll? Why is she calling Magdalene a troll? Does she communicate through grunts like a troll? What makes someone troll-like? Does… does Magdalene look like a troll?
She’s told this via the person at the front desk, who she then has a… strange conversation with.
“Magdalene Perez is down here on the twentieth floor. Frankly, the only thing she and I have in common is Gideon, and that’s not a good thing. If she has something to say, it’s your boss she should be talking to. Could you please have someone escort her up?”
It’s like half super unprofessional and half actually weirdly too professional. I have no idea what’s going on here. No idea. Anyway, Eva gets increasingly weird about reassuring herself about Gideon!
Eva Gets Increasingly Weird About It #2
I believed he had strong, deep feelings for me. I just didn’t know if they were enough to override his survival instinct.
Eva asks her boss Mark if he wants to get lunch. He doesn’t.
Eva Gets Increasingly Weird About It #3
I headed downstairs and tried not to think about Gideon’s radio silence. I’d kind of expected to hear something after the Magdalene incident. Getting no reaction had me worrying all over again.
Eva runs into Gideon’s brother Christopher who Gideon warned her about spending time with. Eva doesn’t make any sense.
I was briefly reminded of Gideon’s warning to stay away from Christopher, but by now I figured he trusted me. Especially with his brother.
Christopher invites Eva and Cary to his family’s party for his record label, but says Gideon probably won’t go because he doesn’t like musicians. Or something. Sure.
Eva gets back to work and Mark goes off to give a presentation to Gideon and
Eva Gets Increasingly Weird About It #4
When Mark left for the meeting with Gideon, my heartbeat quickened and a clutch of anticipation tightened my stomach. I couldn’t believe my excitement just from knowing what Gideon was doing at that particular moment, and that he’d have to think of me when he saw Mark.
Except when Mark comes back, he has an envelope from Gideon with her keys (that I forgot Gideon had whoops) and this note:
Thank you, Eva. For everything.
Yours, G
Eva’s sad, thinks about it a lot, meets up with her mother for their group therapy and shit gets cray.
“How could you, Eva?” She was crying into a monogrammed handkerchief, her face beautiful even while reddened and wet with tears. “Why?”
Jolted out of my torment by her misery, I frowned and asked, “What did I do now?” […]
“You told Gideon Cross about . . . what happened to you.” Her lower lip trembled with distress.
I get that Eva’s mother has issues, but Eva (or Sylvia Day?) is still not acknowledging how weird it is that throughout this entire novel, the only person who doesn’t seem to have any feelings about Eva being a rape victim is Eva. This is a little fucked up.
It turned out that Gideon went to Eva’s mother and stepfather’s that day to talk to them about how secure the information was. Which is also a little fucked up.
They get to therapy. Things continue to be a little fucked up.
She told him I’d betrayed her trust by divulging deeply personal matters to strangers, which made her feel naked and painfully exposed.
Gee, I wonder how the rape victim feels about this?
As for the actual therapy part of the group therapy, well, I’ve never done group therapy before but this looks kind of ridiculous.
“If you were to envision yourself in her place, Monica,” Dr. Petersen interjected, “would it be possible that you might feel as she does?” […]
“Oh.” My mother twisted her handkerchief around her fingers. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”
Ah, it all makes sense now!
Eva asks Dr. Petersen in private if two abuse victims can be happy together, and Ariel pointed out yesterday that this was actually a really good way to get us in Eva’s head without getting us in Eva’s head, and getting in Eva’s head, as we all know by now, is not really something that makes this book better.
But Is It Better Than Fifty Shades of Grey?
Gideon wasn’t in this chapter. Can you imagine a chapter of Fifty Shades of Grey without Christian Grey in it?
That would be amazing.
The Winner This Round: Bared To You