Ooooh it’s 11/11 you guys. MAKE A WISH!
Did you do it? Did you wish that this book would be over and we could start an exciting NEW book (that’s two new series at almost the same time!!!)? Well, the good news is this is the penultimate chapter. WOOOO!
Also have you joined our Goodreads group yet and/or added me and Matt? Well what are you waiting for? There’s even a poll up…
So last time in Reflected in You, Gideon and Eva ambiguously humped each other in an elevator. I didn’t realize I’d been waiting my whole life to type that sentence until now. Anyway, it’s ambiguous because it’s unclear what the fuck is going on with Gideon. He told Eva he’ll never take off the ring she gave him, and he told her to wait.
Chapter 18
After exiting the elevator, Eva’s pal Megumi asks what happened.
I stopped by her desk. “I have no fucking clue. That man is a total head trip.”
Her brows rose. “Keep me posted.”
“I should just write a book,” I muttered, resuming my walk back to my cubicle and wondering why in hell everyone was so interested in my dating life.
Eva, I’ve been wondering the same thing for a long time now. What a bizarrely self-aware moment for this series.
Eva calls Cary and proceeds to confuse the shit out of me.
“Remember that folder of information you compiled on Gideon? Can you make me one of those on Dr. Terrence Lucas?”
I guess this must have happened in the first book, but I’m struggling so hard to remember why Cary made a folder about Gideon. I definitely remember that he and Eva looked him up online and found out about his father committing suicide…but I’m shocked I didn’t make a bigger deal about how fucking ridiculous and hilarious it is that he made a folder about it. And now Eva wants him to do it about Dr. Lucas!
Eva sets up an appointment with Dr. Lucas for the next day and then leaves a message with Christopher (Gideon’s awful brother) to call her. So, another productive work day for Eva, I guess.
Later, she sees Gideon out and about with Corinne, and she flips him the bird.
I wish Gideon was flipped the bird at least once per chapter. Nay. Twice per chapter. Immediately after, Eva tells us, “Abruptly, I was struck by a thought.”
Take Our PollShe calls her mother and confirms that the reason her mom freaked out coming back from lunch was that she saw Nathan outside the Crossfire. I have literally no idea how or why this is occurring to Eva right now, but I just have to say, this is the dumbest reveal and the dumbest way to reveal the dumb reveal.
Eva is very upset, and when she gets home she tells Cary (and us!) what’s got her all huffy.
“I thought Gideon took a hike because of Nathan. Everything was fine and then it wasn’t, and shortly after that the police were telling us about Nathan. I figured one thing was linked to the other.”
“Makes sense.” He frowned. “I guess.”
“But Nathan was at the Crossfire the Monday before you were attacked. I know he was there to see Gideon. I know it. Nathan wouldn’t go there to see me. Not a place like that with all the security and people I know around. […] It means Gideon was fine after Nathan. […] He was fine that whole week. He was more than fine that weekend we took off together. He was fine Monday morning after we got back. Then— bam—he lost his fucking mind and went crazy on me Monday night.”
DETECTIVE EVA IS BACK! The next step is definitely to have Cary make a folder about this!
Eva admits that she doesn’t think Gideon has gone back to Corinne but that that doesn’t make anything easier because she’s soooo confused. Cary asks if Dr. Lucas has anything to do with all this cray, but Eva says no. Cary admits he has yet to add anything to The Folder.
However, he has found an interview with Brett that says he still wants Eva back. Since there are still somehow more books in this series, I guess Brett will be back in the next book.
The next day, Eva has Angus (Gideon’s driver who has still been waiting outside for her all the freaking time) drive her to Corinne’s apartment.
She was seriously gorgeous, with her silky black hair and eyes like aquamarines , and she moved with a lithe grace I admired.
So they bang. Kidding! Eva confronts Corinne. I think my version would have been a more interesting way to go for the series.
Corinne acts like Eva’s interrupting her and Gideon in the middle of some sexcapades, but Detective Eva is having none of it.
“Cut the shit, Corinne.”
Her eyes widened.
My mouth curved derisively. “Gideon’s in love with me. He’s not fucking around with you.”
[…]
“I just want to know what you were doing at the Crossfire that day you came out looking as freshly fucked as you do now.”
Her smile was razor sharp. “What do you think I was doing?”
“Not Gideon,” I said decisively, even though I was silently praying that I wasn’t making a total idiot out of myself. “You saw me, didn’t you? From the lobby, you had a direct view across the street and you saw me coming. Gideon told you at the Waldorf dinner that I was the jealous type. Did you have a nooner with someone from one of the other offices? Or did you muss yourself up before you stepped outside?” I saw the answer on her face. It was lightning quick, there and gone, but I saw it.
I do like that Eva has finally got a clue about all this stuff. I also like that she tells Corinne it’s cool if she reports back to Gideon about all this (so Gideon knows that Eva knows he isn’t a total douche.) But this marks the start of just a TON of exposition explaining all of the “mysterious” shit that’s happened in this book.
Without spoiling the last chapter, it only gets worse. Think the last scene of Psycho where the psychiatrist gives the long explanation about Norman and the whole plot of the movie. The only difference is that Psycho is awesome, and this is Reflected in You.
Now it’s time to go see Dr. Lucas!
Eva accuses him of lying about Gideon’s exam when he was a child. Basically, Gideon’s mother didn’t believe him about the sexual abuse because there wasn’t any “evidence.” Detective Eva is starting to put the pieces together, though!
“I’m not at liberty to discuss my patients.”
“When you gave me that ‘not at liberty to discuss’ line at the hospital, I didn’t put it together, and I should have.” My fingertips drummed into the armrest. “You lied to his mother. Why?”
He returned to the other side of his desk, putting the furniture between us. “Did he tell you that?”
“No. I’m figuring this out as I go. Hypothetically speaking, why would you lie about the results of an exam?”
“I wouldn’t. You need to leave”
[…]
“I uncrossed my legs and stood. “ What happened between him and your wife happened between two consenting adults. What happened to him as a child was a crime and how you contributed to that is a travesty.”
OH SNAP! The only way to punish this asshole is to FLIP HIM THE BIRD!!
Gideon showed up right before Eva flipped the bird, but I didn’t want to ruin the moment by telling you that first.
Things get very confusing for me in the next minute. The receptionist is telling them to leave, but on the way out Gideon puts a key into the elevator and Eva’s like, “Omg you own everything!” So he owns the building where this guy works?! Da fuq?
Also. Elevators? Again? Really? Too soon.
His teeth sank into my lower lip with enough force to hurt. “You think you can say a few words and end us? There is no end, Eva.”
Because that’s just what you wanna hear. That someone won’t respect your wishes if you really want to break up. But I guess this is kind of exactly what Eva wants to hear now, so, I’ll let it go (for now.) Eva tells Gideon off for putting her through hell. Their next exchange is so baffling I can’t even mock it. I just want someone to explain it to me.
“You’re completely unmanageable.”
“When I’ve got clothes on. Get used to it.”
????????? (That’s where a joke would go if I could understand what this means enough to laugh at it.)
Gideon explains that he can’t tell Eva what’s going on because it’s too dangerous (so we’ve all figured out it’s that he’s killed Nathan and is trying to protect Eva, right? Because if she knows and is interrogated, that’s an issue).
Eva says her “blind trust” is all she has left but it’s not enough (?????), so Gideon tells her about his past to show Eva he is giving something back to her. Basically, after his dad stole all that money and committed suicide, Gideon’s life was rough. His mom remarried, had his shithead brother Chris, and things got even worse. A shrink and her doctoral assistant started coming to the house, and when his mom and the shrink were talking, he was alone with the assistant.
Then it gets so fucking sad, you guys. I’m going to warn people that this could TRIGGER so skip ahead if you don’t wanna read.
His nostrils flared on a sharply indrawn breath. “He made me come. Every goddamned time, he wouldn’t stop until I came, so he could say I liked it.”
OH MY GOD I AM SO FUCKING SAD RIGHT NOW. Well played, Sylvia Day.
There’s a bit more of Gideon blaming himself and Eva being really wonderful and understanding because she’s been there.
“I love you. And I believe you. And none of this was your fault.”
Fuck it. I’m welling up a bit. But that doesn’t mean the rest of this series was good by any means! So there!
Oh wait, it gets dumb again, thank God. I feel better now.
“Don’t leave me.”
“Leave you? I’m going to marry you.”
SINCE FUCKING WHEN?!??!?!
Gideon tells Eva he loves her and says a lot unhealthy, nauseating things about living and breathing for her and being obsessed/addicted to her. Remember that one time this book was really good and almost made me cry? Seems like forever ago.
The chapter ends with Gideon telling Eva she still has to wait until they can really be back together.