The Fictional Hockey League

Critiquing hockey romance novels, of which there are many. Overthinking it is the point.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Her Man Advantage: Post 17



Chapters 13: Meanwhile, in the Subplot…

Chelsea really had been volunteering at a homeless shelter during the airing of Double Overtime’s first episode; that wasn’t just a convenient excuse for her to continue avoiding Vinny. But apparently Misty, the other groupie, didn’t know that and assumed that Chelsea had seen the episode and is now mad at her.

Chelsea had actually recorded the episode on her VCR. I get that she’s been homeless and bought all her belongings used but I’m surprised that she’s found a working VCR. I thought I was the last person to have one of those (although I can now no longer use it since I don’t have a tv that will allow it… I digress.)

She was happy with her tag-sale furnishings and Craiglist purchases for the most part… (127).

I think the author must be from New England. I have never heard anyone in Pennsylvania (where I grew up) refer to a “tag-sale” (I had no idea what those were when I first got to Massachusetts for college.) They’re just yard sales or garage sales in PA.

At any rate, the thing that Misty is worried about is, surprisingly, not about Vinny. Instead, Misty had spoken directly to the camera about Chelsea’s “dream of running a shelter geared toward women and children” (127). And she has good cause to be worried, since Chelsea is quite upset that Misty “broadcast [her] dreams on television” (127). She’s upset about losing her privacy, something she never had during all her time homeless.

Misty at first claims she didn’t know that the footage would be used but within a few sentences she turns around and announces that she did it on purpose in the hopes that putting Chelsea’s plans into the public consciousness in the hopes that “by morning, some rich philanthropist is going to want to donate a jillion dollars to make sure you have the chance to do good in the world” (128).

I would say that that’s not how things work. It’s one soundbite on a documentary tv series that I really can’t imagine is going to be all that widely watched (the plan for making a financially successful show notwithstanding) and not even given by the person who wants to do the good in the world. On the other hand, this book has been absolutely littered with wildly improbably things, so let’s find out if within the next 20 pages Chelsea gets her dream…

What does happen for sure is that Chelsea paused her VCR’s playback on an image of Vinny. This is enough for her to realize she’d made a mistake by breaking things off even though she was scared. Remember, though, the days when you used a VCR and you paused things? The almost certainly super-awkward pose of the person on screen? The weird wavy lines that went through the image? She slightly shaking picture?

Chelsea confesses her fear and Misty points out that everyone is scared to meet their SO’s parents, let alone girls who have had, shall we say, challenging past lives. There’s some wibbling and some touching of the tattoo of Vinny’s number (over her heart, of course) but Chelsea decides she’s going to ask Vinny for a second chance.

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