LN Cronan

Question #3: are you a natural brunette? 

 

(Though I suppose a check of the "carpeting" might uncover the blondes and redheads willing to dye their hair dark and wear it long because that's believed to be Gideon's real preference - HAH!)

One more thing to consider -- the first three Crossfire novels have unfolded over the course of the summer, because the story really is a day-by-day unfolding of Gideon and Eva's love story.

 

Sylvia possibly (I say likely) will continue the format with books four and five. Because those books actually contain stuff that should have been in Entwined but there really was too much of it -- too much of Gideon's story -- to do justice to it by cramming it into Entwined.

 

Book Four or Five ending in December? I seriously doubt it. We're in August now in Entwined. I think Book Five will end sometime the very end of summer or beginning of fall. Because the only times Sylvia has ever fast-forwarded the timeline was when Gideon and Eva were broken up. She skipped over four days in Bared to You and eight days in Reflected in You.

Monica simply had her heart set on June because that's the "best" month. Monica is waaaaay too concerned with social status. Plus she's probably envisioning what she herself never got, a father walking her down the aisle as part of a huge society wedding. She got kicked to the curb by her family because she got knocked up and refused to get rid of the baby.

 

Gideon is going to put Monica's needs last and Eva's first -- and Eva needs to be protected against a potentially explosive scandal that will hurt Eva, hurt her sexually. A sex tape of her made public. The first step to putting his mantle of protection over Eva is to make sure everyone knows NOW that she is Mrs. Gideon Cross.

Trey puts up with Tat but that doesn't mean he's happy about it or in my opinion ever would be. Trey deserves someone he can be happy with. He's a sweet guy. Even if Tat gets the boot - which I think and hope she will - there'll be another Tat. Cary himself said loosely quoted"trey wants me to be gay and I'm not. Loving women is half of who I am ". Cary is bisexual. I don't know much about that, but I don't suppose you change that anymore than other sexual orientations. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

He's with T.w.a.t.i.a.n.a for because she "needs" him -- he told Eva as much.

 

That's the wrong reason for him to be with her.

 

Perhaps he's unconsciously filling a void created because Eva at last has reached the point in her own emotional recovery that she no longer NEEDS-needs Cary (i.e. they'll always be close but Eva at last can stand firmly on solid ground, so Cary no longer needs to be there to catch her when she falls.) 

 

If this is true, he and Tat are doomed to fail. Because there's an entirely different dynamic between Cary and Eva, which has always been a platonic brother-sister type of relationship. The Cary and Tat dynamic is that of f*** buddies.

I totally agree with this I do not think Corinne had serious mental health issues at all except those caused by the inappropriate medication she received. Also even Eva said it is harder to be the one left behind , she didn't seem to have mental health issues the first time when Gideon actually broke off an ENGAGEMENT .... Gideon actually confirmed that himself. And it could also be that Corinne's I'll fated pregnancy plan was doomed and she had to get desperate... No Corinne is as sane as the rest of us but desperate and obsessed are a dangerous combination!!

 

Agree!! One note though, Corrine broke the engagement, not the other way around. She did it as an ultimatum, hoping it would finally make Gideon fight for their relationship (because all along, he hadn't been). It backfired, though -- he was secretly relieved she called off the engagement, and he let her walk.

 

She walked right to Jean-Francois, however -- someone Gideon knew too back then and thought was a nice guy. So Corrine didn't pull a kah-ray-zee back seven years ago (which is when the relationship with Gideon ended with a broken engagement). She obviously married JFG on the rebound.

 

But spent years since then still holding the Gideon torch. Her marriage started to fall apart over it. But something made her desperate, and that something was NOT Eva. Corrine hadn't even known about Eva's existence yet when she dramatically decided to move back to New York. She booked a flight and then called Gideon on a Saturday night (New York time, which actually meant pre-dawn hours in France) "in crisis" to ask him to be on hand when she arrived in New York, because she needed his help to settle in.

 

I think the "crisis" was finding out about her unplanned pregnancy -- she decided to scramble in order to use the pregnancy to trap Gideon, figuring a baby was her best desperate shot at getting him to promise to marry her the instant her divorce became final.

I would have liked to have seen Eva follow through on that temptation to grab Corrine by the hair in the lobby of the Crossfire, though. She actually took a step toward doing it when Corrine tried to kiss Gideon. No Krav Maga, but that waist-length hair of Corrine's would have made for a great hair-pulling cat fight.

I want to see her use it too and I would love it if Gideon was a witness.  He would know his "Angel" could take care of herself when necessary.

 

 

Yes! I wanna see her use her skills to show she can defend herself just fine, she's a grown woman and doesn't need people keeping things from her to keep her "safe". Just because she's petite doesn't mean she can't kick some a**

 

It must amuse Sylvia to regularly see us spin hopes of some sort of future scene in which Eva kicks some arse. But Eva actually has used Krav Maga twice now, both times for what it is intended for, which is self defense.

1. She used it for self-defense literally against Gideon, when he was in the midst of one of his rape nightmares where he inside his head, he was acting out the role of aggressor against his rapist and his fast-asleep body was actually acting out an assault -- against Eva who happened to be in the bed.
2. She used it for self-defense in a figurative way in front of her emotionally traumatized Dad at Parker's studio. By taking on the top instructor himself, Eva was able to show her father she is more than capable of fending off attackers, so no one is ever going to victimize her again as a grown woman the way she had been victimized as a girl, raped for the very first time when she was just ten years old.

There's something Gideon says in Chap. 22 that's really bugging me...

 

When he's telling Eva he took DDeanna to a wine bar (page 336) he says that when he went back from the hospital the previous night, he found DDeanna waiting for him in the lobby. Now, I assume he went to his apartment near Eva's. Or was it his penthouse?

I'm not happy with either options.

 

What does anyone think?

 

I think it was the lobby of Eva's building, and Deanna had been waiting there to ambush Eva, hoping to hit Eva with the shocker that Corrine Giroux overdosed earlier that evening. Eva, of course, already knew -- but Deanna would have naturally assumed Eva hadn't known.

 

Deanna was probably shocked to see Gideon openly walk in -- but she quickly would have recognized the truth that Eva, not Corrine, held Gideon's heart. So Deanna instantly switched gears to hit Gideon with the shocker a sex tape existed featuring Eva "doing" Brett. As a two-fer, hit Gideon with the news that Eva "took Brett home with her" the other night (again, not knowing Gideon would have been aware it was just a friendly visit.)

I dont think Brett will always be around - Eva is married now and while she does want to keep Brett as a friend, she will not jeopardise her marriage to do so. If Brett doesn't get the message that friendship is all that Eva is offering, she will cut him off as coldly as Gideon tried to with Corinne.

I think if Brett tries to make a move on Eva once he knows she is engaged/married to Gideon, that will be the final straw for her. She has seen what Gideon did to Corinne by leading her on, she has already told Brett once that she doesn't want to do that to him.

I think a subconscious part of Eva was punishing Gideon for his actions with Corinne, by continuing a friendship with Brett. However, after Corinne's latest stunt, Eva will stop playing games (subconscious or not) people are getting seriously hurt here, and Gideon most of all.

 

I agree with you 100% about Eva subconsciously punishing Gideon still.

1. The passionate kiss had been subconsciously driven by a desire to punish Gideon for Corrine by making him feel insecure and jealous. The pair of them figured that out together during their sex-fueled fight in the limo afterward. From page 176 of Reflected, "Because you deserved it! Because you should know what it feels like! How bad it hurts, you self-centered Arse****!"
2. Eva taking Brett to lunch was deliberate revenge, and she made sure Gideon got the message. Because immediately before she left her office to meet Brett downstairs, Eva emailed Gideon stuff to let him know she'd seen the sensational news and photos of him having taken Corrine out the night before.
3. As Entwined opened, Eva was still working through her insecurities about Corrine and was still nursing raw wounds on her heart about how Gideon had deliberately played on Eva's own emotions, using Corrine as the means to drive the wedge between the pair of them. Thus I think that through most of Entwined, a part of Eva is still using Brett to send Gideon the message "You deserve it!" to see Eva with Brett out in public where media was certain to be.

But you're right -- by the end of Entwined, I think Eva realizes being friends with an ex who definitely wants more than friendship is a recipe for disaster. People do get hurt -- badly. Corrine's suicide attempt was a brutal lesson. During the San Diego trip, she'll tell Brett to his face she needs to cut him off completely.

Besides, really the reason why Eva asked for the formal family wedding was two-fold, both of them driven by insecurity:

1. It was a knee-jerk reaction to getting married so suddenly, that Eva wanted to slow things down.
2. Old Eva has been in an appease-Mommy pattern forever, but New Eva has been standing up to Monica. Perhaps Old Eva was in charge at the time Eva made her request for the formal family wedding.

 

At the time of the secret wedding, Gideon did not yet know about the existence of the sex tape. That came a few days later -- and that changed everything.

You know what I was thinking as I read this?  (I hope this isn't a repeat) Dr. Duplicitous most likely followed protocol when she first met with Corinne and took a pregnancy test.  My guess is that she thought it was Gideon's baby and devised her wicked plan to get back at Gideon.  Anne is absolutely the most wicked of the spurned lovers. 

 

Anne would have known exactly when Corrine got back to town, because Terry was there at the fundraiser where Corrine ambushed Gideon with his new girlfriend, Eva. Terry also was witness to how Gideon treated both women. I'm sure he couldn't wait to tell Anne all about it, as further proof of his own thoughts that Gideon is some master manipulator of women.

 

We're not sure exactly how far along Corrine was at that point, because "four months pregnant" can mean anything from 13-16 weeks. But going on the low estimate of the scale, I think Corrine was around 5 weeks. So if Anne did have a pregnancy test run, she'd have known the child was conceived while Corrine still lived in France. 

 

Yet Anne still might have believed it was Gideon's. Because Corrine's marriage fell apart sometime earlier that year, and the divorce proceedings already were in progress. Obviously, Corrine left her husband for Gideon. Might Gideon have lured Corrine into an extra-marital affair in order to pull the same thing with Corrine he did with Anne herself -- send her back broken to her husband? Perhaps the pregnancy itself was Anne's evil impetus to decide to set up Corrine to die -- a double blow to Gideon, dead lover and dead child?

I personally don't think that Gideon will let slip to Deanna about the wedding before Monica organising anything, I think it is those Wedding photo's Gideon is on about as it will crush Eva as she already told him that her mother will think she is having a go and Monica for what Monica has done to her and Eva will not want to do that to her mother and I think Gideon will respect that.  

 

Gideon does not want to hurt Eva and if he releases this news before the "official" family wedding Eva will be so hurt and upset with him and I don't think he would do that.  It would also be cruel to Monica and Victor again why I don't think Gideon will do it this way.

 

I think Gideon was talking to Deanna about the Sex Tape and the forthcoming photo's of the wedding.

 

End of Chapter 22, Monica already was jumping the gun about organizing a wedding, knowing that Gideon had asked Eva's stepfather, Richard Stanton, for permission too. Jumping the gun in that Monica was under the impression Gideon and Eva weren't actually engaged yet.

 

This was August at the time. Monica's timeline was for the following June. Eva suggested December at the latest. Monica immediately balked, insisting she (Monica) couldn't pull off a wedding that soon.

 

"Tell Gideon you're thinking of June next year. See what he says," Eva said, in a way I took as Eva daring her mother to tell Gideon he had to wait until next June.

 

So I'm thinking that a little later at the fundraiser:

1. Monica did just that -- insisted to Gideon the wedding would be the following June.
2. Meanwhile, Eva sprang on him that she (Eva) was going to San Diego for the weekend -- and Gideon probably knew Brett had a concert scheduled there at the time.
3. Lizzie was at the fundraiser too, and she'd found out about the engagement. She verbally attacked Eva. What if she also verbally attacked Gideon, perhaps even playing the Corrine card?
4. Deanna approached him -- perhaps with further developments on the videographer who was shopping around for the highest bidder on the Eva-Brett sex tape? Deanna had said she'd keep the tape secret in exchange for exclusive photos of the wedding. What if Devious Deanna was trying to "revise and revisit" that offer?

 

Combine all those possibilities and add on to the pile Gideon is openly wearing his wedding ring and would just as soon let the world know now .....

 

..... and I can see him deciding on the spot at that fundraiser that Monica appeasing be d.a.m.n.e.d, he wasn't keeping secret any longer that Eva is his wife. They could still have a second wedding with all the trappings, but there are a lot of compelling reasons now for him to make it clear Eva is his wife, most especially Brett Kline and the existence of the sex tape.

 

If I'm wrong that he leaked to Deanna then and there on Thursday night the news about the wedding, then I'm ordering crow pie at Arnoldo's.

Thanks for this,  Graves just is so manipulative to me.  Being at Parker's.  Sparring with Eva.  I keep thinking that her motivation is to get Gideon as a means to further her career and I don't believe one single word she says.  To me, Deanna and Graves are the two most dangerous people to Gideon's freedom.  Both women have agendas.  Perhaps Sylvia is making a point here that Gideon had a reputation as a man who used women and the most dangerous to his life are women.  Not sure, but those 2 make me very nervous.

 

Definitely Graves is dangerous, though her motives aren't as clear to me in Entwined as I believed they were in Reflected. When claimed to Eva she'd burned her notes, I knew then Graves was lying. Cops don't destroy files -- ever, least of all homicide files. I was convinced Graves was using Eva as bait to trap Gideon. Now it I think it may not be as black and white as that. Graves does have a vulnerability now too, because she questioned Eva without a lawyer that night, even though Eva expressly reminded Graves she wanted a lawyer.

 

Gideon has succeeded in paying off Deanna, so she's never going to public dirt on him. But she still wants in the man's pants, so she's capable of indirect stunts aimed at Eva. Of all the brunettes looking to stab Eva in the back, Deanna is the one Eva needs to watch most.

 

But it's the redhead, Dr. Anne Lucas, who is the most dangerous woman of all, I think. If the dark suspicions are true that she was the psychiatrist prescribing inappropriately to Corrine, she was setting up Corrine's death. It would have actually been murder, not suicide, if Corrine hadn't survived the attempt. And even while Corrine was lying in the hospital, Anne was out partying in order to make her first direct run at trying to manipulate Eva. Eva's got a target painted on her now.

Thanks LN, makes it a bit clearer for me

 

The key is to always look behind the words in order to determine motive.

 

There's always motive -- good and bad -- for characters telling Eva things.

 

• Deanna (and Corrine) both have motive for wanting to hurt Eva, and both have proven beyond all doubt they will fight dirty. Therefore, everything they say needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
• The most effective lies are the ones that contain a grain of truth to twist.
• As an example, go back and read from the middle of page 312 to 314 of Bared to You. That's when Corrine got to talk with Eva for the first time. Read something into every single thing Corrine said, and you can see she's using tiny grains of truth in order to manipulate Eva into thinking the worst.

First, to set up some current theories:

 

Entwined with You ends on a Thursday night, Gideon and Eva having just arrived home after the rather eventful event they attended together.

 

The final chapters of both Bared to You and Reflected in You both contained key red flags, and thus it I'm certain Entwined contains one or more key ones.

 

Sooooooo .....

 

Entwined:

• At the dinner table, Eva told Gideon she and Cary were going to San Diego for the weekend.
• Gideon would have been keeping close tabs on Brett's tour schedule, so he would know Brett was supposed to be in San Diego.
• A few minutes later, when Eva returned to the table, Gideon was in close conversation with Devious Deanna ... and as Eva dragged him away from Devious, he said something to Devious that Eva didn't catch. What was it?

 

Book Four:

1. Gideon had been leaking confirmation he and Eva had gotten married secretly last weekend. He was telling Devious to watch her email, because later Thursday night, Gideon would send her the promised-for exclusive photos of the wedding (he'd promised those to Deanna in return for her keeping a lid on the Eva-Brett sex tape, which Deanna knows about.)
2. Friday morning, Eva is going to discover Deanna Johnson has broken a scoop "Gideon Cross Married -- To Eva Trammell!!!" The fact Deanna had photos will be proof to Eva that Gideon did it. More of his media manipulation -- making d.a.m.n. sure Brett Kline knows Eva is his wife.
3. Also, the news of the marriage sends a carrot-stick message to the videographer with the sex tape. The carrot is that Gideon will pay him huge $$$ for that tape, so the guy can quit the bidding process. Stick: Eva is now the wife of one of the richest men on the planet and perhaps one of the most powerful, period, in the entertainment industry. Gideon would be the ultimate dangerous enemy who would destroy the guy if that guy doesn't destroy that video -- fast.
4. Gideon, I'm guessing, already met with the guy during his trip to California earlier in the week, viewing enough of the footage to make certain it was authentic tape of Eva. He'll have threatened the guy then -- now the guy will know Gideon meant it. The sex tape is going buh-bye.

 

Entwined:

• We learned Dr. Anne Lucas is a psychiatrist -- a medical doctor whose specialty is treating mental illness and of all medical doctors, the kind with the most expertise in the use of psychiatric medication -- including the dangers individual medications carry.
• Eva felt a sense of foreboding -- and Eva's gut instincts are usually dead-on (as long as insecurity isn't blinding her.)

 

Book Four:

1. Dr. Anne Lucas had been prescribing the medication(s) to Corrine, chemically manipulating Corrine's depression and anxiety in order to make both worse. Lucas was deliberately driving Corrine to the brink of suicide, knowing that Gideon was bound to hurt Corrine soon (because he hurts every woman, Anne believes.) So Lucas pushed Corrine to the brink, planning on Gideon being the final straw that would push Corrine over the edge. She'd kill herself and the guilt would destroy Gideon.
2. If this is true, it makes Anne Lucas a truly terrifying character. Just to get even with Gideon, Anne was prepared to murder Corrine via using medical expertise to set up Corrine's death (because if Corrine had died, murder is what it really would have been).
3. Because Corrine survived the attempt, she'll end up hospitalized short-term and she'll come under the care of the on-staff psychiatrists in the psych ward. They'll learn that Anne was Corrine's doctor, and they'll learn exactly what Anne had been prescribing Corrine, including dosages.
4. Jean-Francois Giroux will considering filing medical malpractice.
5. Lizzie is going to find out too ... and the can of worms opened over Anne Lucas will lead to another can of worms opening up -- Anne's late brother, Hugh. Ultimately, Lizzie is going to learn Hugh was in fact a pedophile and Gideon had told the truth about being abused.
6. Gideon is going to find out too what Anne did to Corrine -- and so much of his lingering guilt over Corrine will lift. Yes, he did deliberately use Corrine in order to protect Eva, and so he deserves to feel guilty about deliberately hurting Corrine like he deliberately hurt Eva too. But Gideon need not feel guilty about Corrine going crazy after he dumped her, and he definitely does not need to feel guilty about the suicide attempt and the miscarriage it caused.
7. Gideon also does not need to feel guilty anymore about having used Anne either -- he'll figure out the truth was the opposite. Anne probably was using him in revenge for the death of her brother, and because she's an evil psycho.

 

Chapter 13 up for grabs today ....

 

Here we were originally thinking at the end of April when this snapshot first came out that Eva and Gideon were getting it on. When in fact, Monica was getting laid in this chapter.

 

Who could have seen that coming.

Here are my picks in Chap. 13

1) the exchange over the phone between Eva and Ireland.

2) Steve retelling Eva how Mark popped it.

 

and in Chap 14

1) Dinner at the Indian restaurant.

 

In rereading Chap. 14, something came up that I really can't figure out.

 

When Devious Deanna talks about Gideon covering his misdeeds up with money she says: "It's all true, Eva. I've talked to Corinne Giroux."

Now, how the heck does Corinne know about the 'multi body tangle' at Eva's apartment???????

I'd need Julie's vitamins here!!!

 

How can you tell Devious is lying? Her lips are moving.

 

There is a half-truth there, about her talking to Corrine. I think Corrine had been Devious' main original main target, having bought into the public lie Gideon and Corrine reunited -- and Devious finally faced Corrine, having tried (and failed) to get direct ammunition from Eva and Maggie. Probably did get ammo from Anne Lucas.

 

Devious' opening move with Eva had been to try to bait her with the taunt that Gideon used Eva just to get Corrine jealous enough to run back to him. I can see her taunting Corrine using Eva as bait -- Gideon has been beating up guys over Eva, so he must be crazy about Eva.

 

If Devious told Corrine about the Gideon-Brett fight, and Corrine already knew from Christopher Jr. or Lizzie about the Eva-Brett connection, then Devious would have landed a direct blow -- everything that Devious was saying must be true (Devious telling mostly twisted lies though) because the Gideon-Brett fight actually is true. That's the one tale Devious got right, because she spoke to some eyewitness.

 

Gideon never would have discuss Ian with Corrine -- with anyone other than his own lawyers. So Devious was messing with Eva's mind there, trying to fool her into thinking Gideon has been sharing dark secrets with Corrine. Maybe to make Eva so mad she'd turn around and spit out dark secrets about Gideon?

 

Nice try.

I think, while Anne was treating Lizzy, Hugh was abusing Gideon by getting him to m*sterbate and giving him hand jobs himself. When Gideon complains, after all he is a "disturbed child" Dr Terry Lucas and another Dr, examine Gideon. They can find no evidence of abuse.

Anne unaware of her brothers grooming convinces Lizzy its all lies because of Gideons problems which she buys. Therapy continues, Hugh ramps up the abuse to actual anal penertration, actual rape. Gideon is a liar, no one believes him when he complains. Terry Lucas didnt actually lie to start with, because there was no physical evidence of rape. But rather than believe Gideon they said he lied. Convincing his mother he is mentally ill.

Terry was covering his wife's reputation as a shrink, and her business. Claims of rape against a child, isn't good for business. I reckon Angus caught Hugh in the act, or Gideon confided in Angus thus stopping him. That's why Gideon is so solid with Angus and vice versa.

I think at some point Gideon shut down due to his abuse. No one believes him, his family have turned against him, basically throwing him to the wolves. He didnt stand a chance. So sad.

 

Someone eventually put a stop to the abuse, and I believe too that person was Angus. It's the only thing I can think of that would earn Angus such incredible trust from Gideon.

 

Hugh never did end up using his education to go into practice himself, it would appear, because when Gideon was rich and powerful enough to threaten Hugh, he warned Hugh that if he (Hugh) went into practice, Gideon would destroy him. So why didn't Hugh go into practice, like his whole family of mental health professionals? Did Terry privately threaten him to abandon plans, fearing the professional blowback to Anne's family if Hugh got caught (and the blowback to Terry himself, a pediatrician whose brother in law was a pedophile is not good for business).

In the U.S., most female physicians keep the original name -- first, middle and last -- they were using at the time they received their license to practice medicine, a license that would come from which ever state(s) they became licensed. In fact in some states, rules forbid any doctor (man or woman) to later change his/her name on a medical license. 

 

They may go by another names socially after getting married or divorced, and they even can change their names on important documents, like passports.  But they almost always keep "Dr. So-and-So" professionally, the name that is on their medical license. Often, too, doctors hang their medical school degrees in a very prominent place in their office in order to advertise which medical school they graduated from. 

 

Dr. Terry Lucas was 25 when he got married -- he would have still been in medical school. If Dr. Anne Lucas is the same age, or within a couple of years either side, then she too would have still been in school when she married. If this is true, her degree and her license probably are in the name of Lucas.

Timeline of the rise and fall of Corrine's hopes:

 

Week of Nathan's killing:

1. Monday: Gideon took her out on a dinner date in a very public place, where there was a good chance they'd be photographed. Which they were. Corrine must have been puzzled and delighted, even if she likely got the "we're only friends" line. Gideon was taking her out alone. Safe bet that he avoided talking at all about Eva. Major mixed messages from Gideon.
2. Tuesday: The gossip sites and tabloids went wild with speculation they were getting back together. Gideon never did anything to counter those stories. And where was Eva? Nowhere to be seen. The fact Gideon let those stories run unchallenged, and the fact he didn't tell Corrine those pictures caused a problem with Eva must have sent Corrine's hopes skyrocketing. More mixed messages from Gideon.
3. Thursday: Gideon took Corrine to that party, and made sure they got photographed standing too close to one another, him touching her and her laughing. If those pictures from Monday had caused a problem with Eva, he never would have let himself be seen with Corrine in public a second time. But just the opposite was true -- he deliberately took Corrine as his plus-one to a high profile work event. So now everyone will think they're back together. She was probably fooling herself into thinking it was true -- she and Gideon were on a fast track to get back together. This particular night was Gideon's most serious manipulation and lying by omission/action to Corrine. He obviously was desperate this particular night, but he was stone-cold fooling Corrine.
4. Friday: picture of Corrine and Gideon looking very much like a couple ran on THE gossip column in New York, Page Six.  What else was Corrine going to think? Gideon obviously deliberately invited the New York Post to that party -- it was practically shouting from the rooftops he was dating Corrine. Serious lie by omission.

Following week:

1. Gideon knowing the cops were watching his phones (he didn't dare call Eva) likely was taking Corrine's phone calls every day, maybe even briefly chatting a couple of times per day? Anyone examining his phone records would conclude he was talking to his lover.
2. Gideon spending some free time with Corrine? At least Friday or Saturday night, because it would look odd if he did not go out on a date with his "girlfriend" over the weekend. To keep up appearances as well.  Corrine definitely spent enough time with Gideon to know for certain he was not spending any time with Eva. He's probably still telling her "just friends" but it had to be obvious now he and Eva were done.

So Gideon was still misleading Corrine by his actions, sending her mixed messages, letting her still believe they were headed somewhere beyond friendship -- headed there soon. Eva was history. Corrine coming back to New York and driving Eva away had worked beautifully, Corrine would have been led to believe.

 

Week three:

1. Monday: Gideon had Corrine come by the Crossfire so they could go somewhere after work. Was this the night he told her all they could be were long-distant friends, not even "social friends" (i.e. no spending time together any more. He definitely said something like that to Corrine, because he later told Maggie he had -- and Maggie repeated it to Eva on) By refusing to see Corrine face to face anymore, Gideon's actions made clear he was "dumping" her.
2. Tuesday: morning showdown with Eva, that Corrine lost -- and learned that Eva still loves Gideon, even though Eva and Gideon aren't seeing one another. Corrine connecting the dots: Eva's reappearance coupled with Gideon cutting off spending time with Corrine = panic time?
3. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights: Gideon never came home - he spent Wednesday at Eva's and the next three nights in their love nest. Corrine lives around the corner from his penthouse, and could easily (I'd say certainly) watch the entrance to his building, look for the lights on in the penthouse, figuring out he wasn't coming home nights. Corrine must have guessed he was seeing Eva again.

 

Week four:

1. Sunday morning: Corrine called him all teary, but then started to lay some sort of guilt or manipulation trip on him that made him turn icy. Then he hung up on Corrine.
2. Immediately after that call, he learned from Eva just how much of a scheming b**** Corrine had been to her. He decided he no longer wanted to even talk with Corrine. So when Corrine tried calling him again, she couldn't get through.
3. Sunday afternoon through Tuesday lunchtime: Gideon refused to return any of Corrine's numerous phone messages, which likely were home and cell over the weekend and then office as well on Monday and Tuesday. (Poor Scott)
4. Tuesday lunchtime: she showed up unannounced and desperate at the Crossfire, an encounter that ended with him shoving her away and running toward the elevators where Eva had just disappeared toward.

Corrine needed no further proof at that point her own worst insecurity and jealousy issues were right: he'd gone back to Eva. Corrine had lost.

 

Unfortunately, future chapters would show Corrine would not go quietly.

Favorite part of Chapter 12 was another major New Eva moment -- her to be able to rein in her temper and walk away, instead of pulling Corrine's hair, when Corrine was touching her man -- doing so in the Crossfire lobby, where Eva and Gideon met.

 

From page 176: "I can't say I didn't feel jealous, because of course I did -- Corrine could be with him publicly and I couldn't. But I didn't have the sick fear in my gut I'd felt before, the horrible insecurity that told me I was going to lose the man I loved more than anything. It was weird to not feel that panic. There was still a little voice in my head cautioning me against being too confident, telling me it'd be better to be afraid, to guard myself from getting hurt. But for once, I was able to ignore it. After all Gideon and I had been through, all that we were still going through, all he'd done for me ... "

 

YES!!! Finally, she had slain the twin demons of insecurity and jealousy. No more freak outs and runners because of Corrine. This particular test was huge for Eva and she passed with flying colors. What's more, Gideon understands Eva did pass it; he need not worry any more about Eva pitching fits, running away or getting even with him because of Corrine. (OK, well maybe subconsciously Eva is still getting kinda even by trying to stay friends with Brett.)

 

Irony too, that Gideon immediately pushed Corrine away and ran after Eva. The only two times all three of them have been in close physical proximity to each other was this particular scene and at the fundraiser the night Eva met Corrine. Both times ended the same way -- Gideon literally running after Eva, leaving Corrine in the lurch.

 

Additional irony that immediately upstairs, Eva got one heck of a nooner with Gideon -- the thing Corrine had tried to trick Eva into thinking she (Corrine) got from Gideon the day after he learned Corrine had moved back to New York. Hah!

Chapter 12 favorite lines:

 

Eva:

"I've got thirty minutes. I'd rather f*** you than talk about your ex, if you don't mind." (page 177) Boy, what a difference from the two prior times Eva had seen Corrine at the Crossfire.

 

"Dad, I'm the same daughter you came to see a couple weeks ago. The same daughter who hung out with you in San Diego. I'm okay." (page 169) This is what Victor really needs to come to believe.

 

Gideon:

"When I saw you standing the lobby just now, in your pretty yellow dress, you looked so bright and beautiful. So perfect." (page 181) Oh so sweet.

Plus all the dirty talk in that sex scene -- very hawt, hawt, HAWT!

 

Others:

Cary about another model, "She's worse than Tatiana. She kept going on about her 'good side,' which I personally thought was her a.s.s. as it walked out the door." (page 170).

Or me. 

 

This is a RIOT!!!!!!!

Also what age is Anne Lucas? I'm rereading bared and at the the first charity dinner after 'that' limo ride a "lovely red head who appeared to be in her forties" approached Eva and told her she was a "fortunate young lady" could this have been our first introduction to Anne? Maybe she was trying to suss out who Eva was to Gideon?

 

Sylvia said in response to a spoiler question a while ago that it wasn't Anne Lucas who approached Eva that night (Eva's first date with Gideon.) Ah, another theory dashed!!!

 

We know Dr. Terry Lucas is 45 years old, and he and Anne have been married 20 years. Eva dug that up in a Google search the morning after she met Terry. We're not sure on Anne's age, but 40-something is a good guess.

A female voicing Gideon ?!?!  That is seriously wrong on so many levels.  Can't even begin to think how my brain would react to that

 

Actually, it does work in this case, because the entire story is from Eva's point of view. Everything is either what is going on in her head -- or -- actual dialog. Her saying things to other characters. Other characters saying things to her in return.

 

It's like Eva is repeating to us things that Gideon said to her, which actually she is doing because the story is written in the first-person. So the narrator does a great job of imitating the voices of the other characters. She does a really sex Gideon, a sassy Cary, a breathy bubble-head Monica, a gruff Victor .... you get the idea.

 

Most audiobooks are narrated by a single performer who does different "voices" and the best ones can do both male and female pretty well. Sometimes if a novel has two different points of view -- such as a his-side, her-side or a younger-older version of a character -- you might see two narrators. More than two is unusual, but not unheard of (pun intended.)