Chapter Five: The Plot Thickens
It
turns out that the Darcy-the-best-friend owns a lingerie boutique, because of course
she does. And she’s in a bad mood when Hayden arrives because a man with whom
she’d had one date, which amounted to smoothies and a bit of in-car making out,
sent her a bouquet of roses. Hayden tells her that there’s something wrong with
Darcy for being freaked out about the bouquet (which she has thrown away) and
calls it a sign of Darcy’s commitment issues. Frankly, though, I’m with Darcy
on this one. Roses delivered to work after one not-quite-a-date? That’s too
much too soon. On the other hand, it probably wouldn’t make me burst out with
“What is the matter with the penis
species?” the way it does Darcy (56 emphasis original).
After
Darcy calms down a bit, Hayden fills her in on meeting up with Brody again.
Darcy assumes that Hayden was able to keep to her one-night-stand plan,
especially after finding out that Brody is a hockey player, but Hayden also
fills her in on the Lakeshore Lounge Public Orgasming Event. Darcy offers two
solutions. First, forget Brody entirely by watching porn or have a fling with
Brody, since not every relationship is either one-night stand or marriage.
In
the next scene, the plot with the soon-to-be-ex stepmother thickens. Hayden has
given her deposition (to a lawyer named Diane Krueger. Isn’t that an actress?)
and notices that Sheila is looking
haggard. Her father reminds Hayden that she’s agreed to attend a “shindig” at a
“gentlemen’s club” (61). I’m sure the author doesn’t mean what it sounds like,
so I’ll move on. After that encounter, Hayden is stopped by Sheila-the-Stepmother
who drops some hints that maybe she’s not the villain—or at least not the only
villain—in the piece. To begin with, she wants to tell Hayden that there’s no
hard feelings and that she knows Hayden is only protecting her father. This
confuses me since the only thing Sheila has done is give a deposition that
Sheila was not coerced into signing the prenup. Nothing the text has given us
privy to from Hayden’s perspectives suggests that she’s perjuring herself or
anything. Next, Sheila mentions how much she still cares for Presley and how
she doesn’t want put all the blame on him, and that in fact it was she who
“sent him into another woman’s arms” (62). Of course Hayden doesn’t want to
believe that her father might have been unfaithful, but it worsens further when
Sheila also suggests that Presley has been drinking again, which sounds like he
has a problem, which Hayden never knew about. She tries to push it all from her
mind.
The
perspective switches to Brody, and I have a great deal to say about the actual
hockey parts of this chapter, but I’m going to push that off until the next
post. Suffice it to say that as Brody leaves practice, he realizes he’d
forgotten his watch, which had been given to him by his doting parents. He
heads back to the locker room but on the way finds his team’s captain (Mr
Serious, Jonathon Toews Craig Wyatt)
whispering intently with the Soon-to-be-Ex, Sheila Houston.
Naturally,
Brody eavesdrops. Did those doting, watch-giving parents not teach Brody any
manners?!
Anyway,
Brody doesn’t stay long, just long enough to hear that Sheila is crying and
that CraigSerious calls her “baby.” This leads to Brody wondering if they’re
having an affair, which would explain the rumors even if it seems out of
character to him for Mr Serious. Brody debates what to do with the information
he’s so rudely gathered, and decides to go to Becker, the team veteran.
Oh,
and lest you forget he’s pining for Hayden, his scene ends with his wishing her
in his bed.
Oooooooh, intrigue!
ReplyDeleteManners, pfft. Manners must be sacrificed for plot!