Monday, June 9, 2014

Come Next Summer: Chapter Ten-Because Why Tell People Things?


Devon is so very bored. Most people left for spring break, and even that restaurant that sells every kind of food is closed. So very bored. Seth called earlier looking for Jon. When he found out his son wasn't there, he quizzed Devon on her views of various things for about half an hour. That didn't last long enough to stop her boredom, though. Devon tried knitting a sweater, and learned that she was terrible at knitting. After her cat unraveled it, she was able to throw the whole thing away. Also, as part of the boredom, Devon realizes that she misses Jon. So much. She finally (finally!) realizes that she's in love with him. But he “clearly” doesn't want her long-term and she doesn't believe there's only one man for each woman anyway. She tells herself there's other men, but knows how heartbroken she'll be to live somewhere that's not with him. Devon decides she can't think about that, and focuses on making herself a chocolate cake instead.

While that's baking, she goes out to get the mail and chats with the landlady a bit. They have to live in the Midwest. They're talking about the weather and Devon says, “If you don't like it, wait a minute and it will change.” Anyway, Devon offers her landlady and her husband a bit of her chocolate cake. Yay, cake! This woman doesn't even approve of married couples spending a night apart. Certainly old school. Anyway, as she's flipping through the mail, Devon finds an envelope for her from the dean of that graduate school she applied to. Everything else forgotten, she makes her excuses to the landlady and heads inside, dropping Jon's mail on his desk. Devon cautiously opens the envelope with a knife, rinses the knife, puts it away, and slowly starts taking the paper out of the envelope...

Then someone rings the doorbell. Oh, hello Margo. Come to be a manipulative jerk, have you? Margo says flatly that she's going to marry Jon. I wonder if Jon knows about this. It's a political arrangement, because Margo's dad is a Senator, or some other bigwig, and Jon needs the support for some reason. Margo doesn't believe in love and does believe that Jon will have all kinds of mistresses. She'll probably have....misters? Not sure what the term is for the men a woman has affairs with. Anyway, Margo does a thorough job of telling Devon that she's just like every other girl Jon has had a fling with and that there's nothing different or special about her. Margo must not be aware they're in a romance novel and Devon is the main character. Oh, and Margo tells Devon this so she won't get hurt and she'll just let him go when he breaks it off and not try to get revenge. Rude.

Margo leaves and Devon debates about whether Margo was telling the truth or not. As we've seen, “telling the truth” is very subjective in this book. But Devon doesn't think she's worth Jon's attention, so she decides that Margo is and that she needs to kill this thing she and Jon have going. She pulls her overdone cake out of the oven and decides to look at the letter from the grad school. Her life is just about her now, so she needs to know what she's doing with it... Oh hey! She got in! Her free tuition is only for undergrad, so she's got a money problem, but she's determined to fix it and go to grad school. Somehow.

That evening, Devon falls asleep on the couch but wakes up when she hears some suspicious noises. Yup, that's the back door and someone's walking across the kitchen floor. Please don't put more traumatic things in here. I've just begun to accept what happened earlier. Oh good, it's Jon. Devon is super happy to see him and he's happy to see her and suddenly they're in the middle of the room trying to get as close to each other as they physically can. They both say how much they've missed the other and it's not long before they're on the floor of the living room, both of their sweaters off and Jon's undoing the buttons on her blouse. Devon is quite happy with this. Jon says something about how Devon has found a great new way to celebrate. She asks what they're celebrating and he lists a few things, including his new job...

Wait. What? He's working for Bob Dickinson? That's Margo's dad, by the way. Margo must have been telling the truth and Devon doesn't want to have sex with him if he's just going to abandon her. So, Devon tells him to get off of her. He is confused, and admits that he didn't plan this but he's enjoying it. He asks what happened because she was enjoying herself before. Instead of explaining, Devon just says that she changed her mind and that if Jon doesn't stop, it's rape. Oh hey, she does know that word. Jon does stop. (Thank you Leigh Michaels, or Leach Michaels' editor for deciding two attempted rapes were enough for one story.) He also tells her that when she does change her mind and want to have sex again, she'd better be damn convincing. He goes up to his room to unpack and Devon chides herself for thinking she was different and that Jon really loved her.

Because telling him why she wanted him to stop would have made too much sense. I don't think he's on board with marrying Margo. If anyone, I think he'd marry Devon if she'd have him, but she doesn't ask because that would make the book end much more quickly. Instead she just assumes and makes them both unhappy. At least if they talked it out, Jon would know why she was mad.

My guess for the next chapter (the penultimate chapter)...the teacher Jon was covering for will return and Devon will miss Jon more than ever while trying to keep herself separate from him, somehow it will come out that Margo either lied to her or that Jon changed his mind about marrying Margo, Julie might have to push Devon to actually talk to Jon about this, and Jon will reveal that he is one of the assassins sent to kill C.J. and his kids but now that he's met Devon, he can't go through with it.

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