Chapter 19
So not too much happened last chapter except Cary filmed Magdalene and Gideon’s brother Christopher having sex after discussing how Eva and Gideon shouldn’t be together. I also realized I’ve been calling her Magdalena for some fucking reason, but I can’t be bothered to go back and change it in all my other posts. I bet none of y’all give any fucks thank God.
Also, Eva told Gideon she loved him, bought him a ring to go with the one Gideon bought for her (they symbolize their submissive/dominant roles which were defined about one hour and no character development after the idea was introduced).
In this chapter, we begin with Cary, Gideon and Eva watching television together and not discussing why Cary filmed Magdalene and Christopher having sex literally until Magdalene was “limp.” It was some fucked up shit to behold. But why address these things when Cary and Gideon can bond and Eva can admire them? “Both were wearing loose sweatpants and fitted T-shirts, and I appreciated the view. Was I a lucky girl or what?” I’m going to go with the “or what” option based on all previous information I have regarding your life.
A series of mundane and weirdly-linked things happen. They read fortune cookies and joke around, which makes Eva wonder (for some reason) what Gideon was like in college. Then the woman Cary had sex with the other night shows up for apparently more sex even though Cary has been dating some guy named Trey and supposedly really liked him. Eva asks Gideon if he had a “fuck pad” in college like he does now. What college student has a “fuck pad” on the side? Aren’t all college students’ rooms just inherently fuck pads? I don’t understand the question.
I brushed my hair and teeth, then washed my face. “So . . . did you have a sex pad for the rare occasions some lucky bitch got you in bed?”
His gaze caught my soapy reflection in the mirror. “I’ve always used the hotel.”
“That’s the only place you’ve had sex? Before me?”
“The only place I’ve had consensual sex,” he said quietly, “before you.”
“Oh.” My heart broke.
This conversation is just so awkwardly worked into the story. So based on some joking around, Eva starts to wonder what Gideon was like in college…and this leads her to wonder if he had some sort of off-campus place where he had sex with women (like the hotel room he first took Eva to)…and this leads to this conversation which happens out of the blue with no lead-in or build-up. I can’t even.
Oh, I’m sorry. They “make love”.
There’s a scene break, and the most confusing scene I have ever read appears. Eva wakes up and thinks she’s being raped by her step-brother again, then she thinks she’s dreaming. Or I think she’s dreaming. It’s all very confusing until the end of the scene when she explains Gideon is having a nightmare and trying to rape her (WHAT THE EVEN FUCK?). Cary comes in, and Eva is like, “It’s cool.”
After this incident, Cary gives some sage advice,
Cary sighed, his green eyes dark and serious. “I think you need to decide if you’re in over your head, baby girl. Some people can’t be fixed. Look at me. I’ve got a great guy and I’m giving it to a girl I can’t stand.”
I will never understand Cary.
Anyway, so Eva goes back to Gideon and begs him not to leave and keeps telling him she loves him and they’ll go to therapy and work things out. Eva isn’t ready to have sex yet (a first for this book) in light of this scary incident, so they just cuddle.
But then she wakes up a little later, and reaches into his pants while he’s asleep and starts messin’ around down there. Because, you know, they can’t resolve an issue without sex. Eva’s like, “Make us forget.” I wish someone would do the same for me when it comes to this book.
I have a really hard time discerning how we can go from reading a near-rape scene to this and the supposed effect is that this sex scene is going to arouse the reader. Maybe the part where they got it on before the rape scene would have been sexy, but that was omitted from the book. In all likeliness it was omitted to make room for this current scene, which just feels gross and wrong given what happened like two pages ago. Sleep-attempted-rape is just nothing something you recover from after a scene change!
And then Gideon cries after, and I’m somehow made even more uncomfortable even after all the uncomfortable shit that preceded this. That’s sort of an achievement?
So the next morning things are good between our heroes, great. So how can we create more drama? With Cary of course! In a predictable “twist”, Eva lets Trey upstairs, but UH OH, the other lady is there! Maybe Trey will be like, “Okay, so you’re cheating on me…but it’s with a lady…since when are you bi-sexual, that was never made clear!”
They have sex (off-screen). Cary claims Trey is angrier because it was a woman and not a man. I’m skeptical. He’s probably just mad because Cary was cheating. Eva and Cary both yell about each other’s relationships, and I just seriously couldn’t care less because they are both idiots. There. I just won the argument. They didn’t. I did. FUCK THESE CHARACTERS!
Yeah, I MIGHT have just posted my comment on the previous post. Might. And by “might” I mean, “Okay, it’s there, I’m stupid, happy?”.