Previously, we dipped our toe back into Eva and Gideon’s relationship. There wasn’t any sex, but there was angst over whether or not Gideon is still under the spell of his former fiance who he never actually loved but dated because it was easy! So mysterious. We also learned that our heroes were going to be apart for a whole weekend. Day has brilliantly set up a nuanced, riveting book. Let’s see what she has in store for us in chapter two!
Chapter 2
In case you’d forgotten, Gideon is rich:
He continued the ride up to the top floor, which housed the headquarters of Cross Industries. The Crossfire was his, one of many properties he owned throughout the city, including the apartment complex I lived in.
He also happens to own basically every place Eva happens to step into, which effectively keeps her under Gideon’s watchful gaze no matter where she goes. How romantic! When I visit New York later this summer, I’m going to do the Crossfire tour and basically be like, “Look over there! I bet Gideon would own that building! And look, here’s where Cross Industries could hypothetically be! And this is where Gideon and Eva had sex all those times! WOOOOAH!”
We are randomly introduced to a new character named Megumi who is a receptionist at Crossfire Industries and apparently Eva’s new girlfriend? I’m so confused – this book picked up exactly where the last left off, and Eva has never mentioned this woman! But their interaction implies they are already at least kind of friends.
“Hey,” I said, stopping by her desk. “Got any plans for lunch?”
“I do now.”
“Awesome.”
There’s a level of familiarity there that I am not familiar with. It would be great if Eva was like, “No…I wasn’t inviting you to lunch, I was just politely asking if you had plans.” Also, I bet Megumi will be like Kate was in Fifty Shades, just kind of thrown in when Eva needs to talk to a girlfriend about Gideon, but otherwise just kind of fades into the background and is largely ignored.
Eva literally doesn’t say another word to Megumi, instead she walks off and thinks about how she has to cultivate female friendships since Cary has started making new friends (or orgy buddies, if you will) while she’s just been seeing Gideon all the time. Way to go Eva, the best way to cultivate those friendships is to just imagine cultivating those friendships.
Eva gets an apology text for Cary. I guess they don’t really make “Sorry for Having an Orgy in our Living Room” cards, do they?
Eva unnecessarily explains why the situation she walked into was undesirable:
No woman wanted to come home to a sexual clusterfuck in progress on her living room floor. Especially not while in the middle of a fight with her new boyfriend.
I suppose all this was necessary just in case we weren’t sure if Eva normally liked to walk into sexual clusterfucks, or if women in general enjoyed them. I mean, walking into that in the middle of a fight is actually a great way to ease the tension! You’re immediately bonded to the person you had to witness that with. Fighting over ex-fiances just doesn’t seem the same after a moment like that!
Eva informs Cary of their weekend trip to Vegas, and then for some reason starts telling us about the pictures of her family, Gideon and one friend (Cary) that she has on her desk. During this, she describes her mom in a truly creepy way:
I loved having those images of the people I loved close by: my mom with her golden cap of curls and her bombshell smile, her curvy body scarcely covered by a tiny bikini as she enjoyed the French Riviera on my stepdad’s yacht;
I think my bold addition says it all. This is the sort of description I would expect Gideon to give for a photo of Eva, not from Eva about her mother!
Random things happen but don’t go anywhere like Eva finding out her next advertising project is for blueberry flavored coffee, Eva starting to google Dr. Terrence Lucas, a man who was at the same dinner as Gideon and Eva, a man Gideon clearly dislikes (I only mention this because it seems like it’s going to come up again later), and Cary calling to make sure Eva isn’t moving in with Gideon or something.
Eva finishes googling Dr. Terrence Lucas and finds out he’s been married for 25 years to a woman with red hair, which means a woman couldn’t have come between Lucas and Gideon because Gideon has a history with brunettes not red heads! Detective Eva, everyone. Then Eva explains to us that she and Gideon don’t ask enough questions about each other because they’re afraid of stirring up more shit.
We were together because we were addicted to each other. I was never as intoxicated as I was when we were happy together, and I knew it was the same for him. We were putting ourselves through the wringer for those moments of perfection between us, but they were so tenuous that only our stubbornness, determination, and love kept us fighting for them.
You guys, it doesn’t matter if they’re fucking miserable together most of the time! There are moments where things are perfect.
Eva dicks around at work for awhile, and then Magdalene calls and tells Eva that Gideon wasn’t ignoring her at dinner to talk to Corinne, he was managing Corrine. Because she was trying to remind him of all the places she and Gideon had been first.
Magdalene claims she owes Eva one for being a bitch when they first met. This is stupid, go the fuck back to work, Eva.
I do find Magdalene slightly more interesting than any evil romantic rival from Fifty Shades. She tells Eva since they’ll be seeing each other around she doesn’t want any drama, but she also makes it clear she regrets not making Gideon work for her the way Eva does. Although, it sounds like that wouldn’t have solved anything because Eva and Gideon are inexplicably addicted to each other or whatever the fuck.
Because she’s feeling super romantic after this conversation, Eva texts Gideon, “I’d give anything to be sucking your cock right now.” Ah, love.
On her way to lunch, Gideon calls Eva and makes her step away from Megumi to talk dirty to him a little. After she tells him she wants to make him come he’s like,
“Good. Because I treasure you, Eva, and what we have. Even our driving urge to fuck each other constantly is precious to me, because it matters.”
The ridiculousness of this statement is endless. From the way Gideon says things that no one would actually say aloud to the final, “because it matters.” The supposed importance of their constant urge to have sex is undermined by the fact that Gideon is saying things like, “Our horniness is precious to me. I treasure your blowjobs, Eva. They matter.”
Eva has an awesome friend date with Megumi, but when they return to the office, she sees Corinne coming out of the building with smudged lipstick. So Eva snaps a picture of this. Then Corinne gets into Gideon’s car, and Eva is PISSED. God damn it, Gideon. I thought your urge to fuck each other mattered!