LN Cronan

 Eva's first Nathan nightmare in a long time, Cary would later note, was triggered by Eva's own insecurity problem with Gideon.  One night before, Corrine existence, up to then a secret, had thrown Eva into incredible turmoil. The very next day, Corrine pulled the "nooner" stunt. That on top of the incidents the night before at the fundraiser made Eva snap. It was so bad that even her old serious anger issue erupted - she slapped Gideon across the face when she confronted him about her (mistaken) belief he'd just cheated on her. They had a really bad argument in his office, an argument that continued that evening during their first couples therapy session. That night, Eva had a flashback nightmare of Nathan attacking her while she was helpless. Early the next morning, while Gideon was still asleep in her room (but I think actually was awake and eavesdropping) Cary and Eva had a talk. It was Cary's opinion the situation with Gideon was unhealthy (especially the secret keeping) and proof of that was the nightmare. Because it had been a long time since Eva had one of those. Cary, knowing all too well the details of Eva's issues (they were in group therapy together) was blaming Eva's new relationship for opening her old wounds.

 My theories:  3 a.m. in connection with college = all-nighters cramming for exams and/or writing papers. Graduation means finally freedom for all that.  3 a.m. in connection with Gideon = he started to have one of his nightmares, but Eva woke him up before it went too far, and they made love for the first time in his bed. At around 3 a.m. (Also noteworthy is that they decided to trust one another by having sex without using a condom. He didn't have any in his home -- why would he -- they'd previously already had the discussion about contraception, and Gideon had already mentioned he could produce paperwork -- STD testing results -- to demonstrate he was disease free.  She picked it up in her apartment when they went there together before work, so she could get dressed and ready there. All she'd had with her when she went to Gideon's the night before were her gym clothes plus the outfit she'd worn to work the day before.)

 A longer engagement could have been possible -- especially because the whole reason they'd gotten engaged to begin with was Corrine's first attempt to move the physical relationship to a new level of intimacy (spending whole nights in one another's dorm rooms/apartments). I had been thinking of one year as a possible timeline between start of engagement and the wedding itself, because that's a not uncommon timeline.  Besides, it's possible one or both already was out of college. Though the story does not come out and say it expressly, there's a strong suggestion Gideon dropped out of Columbia University. The word he used is "left" not "graduated." Lots of real-life richest billionaires in the world who started making their fortunes at a young age, from Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg, dropped out of Ivy League schools to start pursuing what they wanted to do with their futures. Gideon comes across as one of those.  We know he was a freshman when he met Corrine, which would have made him around age 18, give or take a year. But we don't know whether Corrine also was a freshman. She could have been one or more years ahead of him. Likely still an undergrad, but she could have been as old as 21, give or take a year when they first started dating.  Thus one scenario -- just one -- would put him at around age 21 and already very rich, fast on his way to becoming insanely so, and her in her mid-20s, ready to settle down and desperate to hold onto the elusive Gideon, someone she never really "caught" for all her chasing. Perhaps firmly convinced that the only way to finally "catch" him would be to marry him, I can see Corrine getting him to agree to get engaged, and then her setting a timeline of one year to the wedding.

<<====== With my avatar, some of the words are cut off because it doesn't quite fit in the box. But the full phrase it contains is "I wander through fiction to find the truth." Â I know that for me, the reason this saga currently has me hooked is because the story contains so much pain and joy that it taps into my own personal dark side as well as my lightness. Some of my favorite fiction, from Shakespeare to Crossfire, deals with the complexities of darkness and light together inside an individual. Â Every one of us has faced pain and healing in some form or another -- no one escapes getting hurt by life. We all carry baggage. For some people, their emotional baggage is one carry-on size. For others, it's steamer trunk size. Gideon and Eva have entire matched sets of emotional baggage, something that every one of us can relate to either through our own personal experience or through being close to someone who struggles with heavy burdens.

When Gideon asked Eva to spend the whole night with him in his apartment, he broke one of his biggest rules of all -- the rule he would never literally sleep with a woman. By that, I mean fall asleep alongside a woman in his bed. Because of his nightmares. It makes all the more poignant that Gideon took Eva home to make up for the fact he'd taken her to that hotel for sex. Â THE deal-breaker issue between him and Corrine had been more than just the fact he wouldn't have sex with her anywhere besides that hotel. He absolutely refused to stay an entire night with her -- not at that hotel, not anywhere. I think the whole reason he settled on hotel sex was because having sex at either one of their respective dorm rooms or apartments would entail spending the whole night together. Â Gideon thinks Corrine broke the engagement in an attempt to force him fight for the relationship, to fight to keep her by starting to spend entire nights together. Their sleeping in one or the other's beds would move their sex life to the level of intimacy marriage would entail -- sharing a bed, a bedroom, a home itself. But when Corrine rolled the dice, she lost. Gideon was secretly relieved she ended it, because by then, he'd figured out he could never keep the nightmares of his being raped a secret from her if they shared a home. Â Too, I see this as a sign of Gideon's dysfunction level when it came to relationships. He let that engagement drag on way too long -- a whole year -- when he never ought to have accepted her marriage proposal to begin with. I wonder how close to the altar the pair of them were by the time Corrine pulled her ultimatum. One year is a fairly common length of time between the start of an engagement and the wedding itself. If I had to guess, I would say the invitations had already gone out months ago and the wedding date itself was fast approaching. And perhaps the sticking point could have been the honeymoon plans. Usually, that's the groom's department. Formal etiquette (especially practiced in high society circles) is that the groom pays for the honeymoon -- so that part of the entire overall wedding plan was Gideon's responsibility. And the prospect of the honeymoon was making him start to pull away.

 Fury at her is my guess, based on how icy cold he was the next time he saw, a little bit later when he had Angus drive her back with him (Angus) to pick Gideon up.  Usually, when Gideon gets angry, he turns icy. (Which makes the fact he got incredibly hot-headed toward Brett even more noteworthy -- Gideon going postal is extremely out of character for him).  There are times that Gideon, still kinda clueless about relationship dynamics, treats Eva badly. This time, furious at her, he starts out by treating her as a s***. He keeps it up even after she accuses him of doing exactly that (even though something like pain does flash through his eyes). But by the time their sex-fueled fight ends, he'd finally gotten that anger out of his system.

 So if Sylvia uses a similar literary device pattern for Entwined, here's some theories I have based on some of the Entwined chapter snapshots we've already seen.  Chapter 1: They've just entered the biggest crisis of their relationship, the revelation Gideon killed Nathan -- and they have to talk about it. Chapter 2: By the time it's over, they've talked, decided what to do next, and have had lots of loving make-up sex.  Chapter 3: not sure -- the snapshot appears to be work related, but we know that some chapters contain multiple scenes, and some end with cliff-hangers. An example is Chapter Seven of Bared - the last sentence of that chapter is the cliff-hanger of Eva telling Gideon right to his face she doesn't want to see him anymore (because of how he treated her badly on their first date.) My guess on possible cliffhanger is Brett shows up. Chapter 4: Between the snapshot and the snippet shortly before that snapshot, we know Brett, Eva and Gideon all are at some sort of Vidal Records PR event in Times Square. Perhaps the resolution here is how Eva and Gideon are publicly going to handle their ex(es) - Brett (and possibly Corrine too) for now while still seeing one another secretly.  Chapters 5 & 6: The snapshots are towels (#5) and a bathtub (#6). Perhaps a bath taken together in which they talk about some of his dark childhood secrets. Gideon had been around members of his family in Times Square - maybe that's the crisis heading into Chapter 5. In Chapter 6, the newly-honest Gideon actually opens up to Eva, telling her anything she wants to know.  Chapters 7 & 8: Something to do probably with Eva now living her own public lie as a footloose, fancy free party girl, already over that Gideon Cross she'd dated for a few weeks earlier that summer. It's Gideon's turn to squirm now, karma for those weeks in Reflected where Eva endured agonies of jealousy from repeatedly seeing Gideon appearing to be intimate with Corrine.  Chapter 9 onward: haven't figured out an obvious pattern beyond what happens with Gideon and Eva getting together in the dance club, but maybe they get spotted together, despite Gideon's disguised appearance.

  However Gideon conveyed to Angus to get Eva the h*** out of there immediately, Eva she didn't notice whatever Gideon did, verbally or non-verbally, to convey the order. But I don't think Angus would have decided on his own to leave then and there, not with Gideon in the middle of a serious physical fight with some guy who was a match for him. Angus was not just Gideon's driver - he was an armed bodyguard too. I believe he had to have been ordered by Gideon to leave.  When Eva refused to get into the car voluntarily, Angus turned to Arnoldo for help. Arnoldo bodily picked up Eva and put her into the limo.

For my favorite quote/paragraph of Chapter Ten, I nearly went with Eva waking up in the morning to Gideon making love to her, but in the end, I went with a quote where Gideon opened up a vulnerable place inside him the night before, when he'd taken Eva home with him. From page 145: Â 'I'd really like you to stay, Eva. I don't blame you for wanting to get out the hotel, but finding you gone scared the h*** out of me. I need to hang on to you for a while."

Chapter A Day Re-Read Project - Today is Chapter Ten of Bared  This chapter continued where Chapter Nine left off, Monday evening (day eight of the story). It goes through late moring on Tuesday (day nine).  Key plot developments: Eva pulls her first runner of the brand new relationship by fleeing the f*** pad hotel. Gideon tracks her down and they make up. Gideon takes her home with him, the first woman he's ever brought home. Eva is thrilled to hear Cary just landed a major modeling job. She's horrified to discover her picture and name have landed on celebrity gossip sites -- identified as Gideon's new girlfriend.

Chapter Nine of Bared To You -- The Reader's Guide  This chapter covers Monday evening (day eight of the story).  Key plot developments: Eva and Gideon made love for the second time - and for the first time as a couple in a committed relationship. This time, the place was of Gideon's choosing - a hotel. But it turned out he'd been using the hotel room as a f*** pad. Eva found out, and she fled.  New characters: Daniel, personal trainer at Gideon's gym (minor)  Making love again - then something goes wrong again The key scene in this chapter is the second time that Eva and Gideon make love -- and it is the first time they do so as a real couple, now that earlier that day they'd formally started their relationship. (The love scene start on page 132 and runs through 138). Unlike the limo, where Gideon was completely out of his comfort zone, this time they have sex in the place he's most secure - the hotel he's always used. Too, they have intercourse in the way he's most secure - him on top holding his partner down. Not that Eva (nor we readers) knew it at the time, because details would emerge in pieces much later, but Gideon had serious hang-ups, which included a control fetish. He even controlled the location where he'd have sex. The only place he's ever had sex prior to Eva was that same hotel where he'd now taken Eva. It's where he'd taken every prior sexual partner throughout his love life/sex life, starting with his first (Corrine) approximately a decade earlier. All Eva knew at the time was Gideon rushed her to a nearby hotel he owned because, because at that moment, they were totally hot for one another and couldn't wait any longer to go to bed. Once inside the room, they made passionate love, and it was very good for both of them. Afterward Gideon was relaxed and happy, a far cry from the freaked out person he'd been Saturday night. But then, while Gideon was taking a shower, things went bad again. Eva came across stuff like sex supplies and extra changes of clothing, clear evidence the room Gideon brought her to was a place previously set up to take women -- a "f*** pad" is the phrase Eva used. Her raging insecurities made her feel cheapened, nothing more than the latest in a long line of women Gideon had brought there for sex. So once again, lovemaking was immediately followed by a head trip -- this time it was Eva who went on one.  Immediately falling into what would turn out to be a long-standing dysfunction pattern she uses when faced with painful situations, she fled the room, pulling the first "runner" of their relationship.  What else happens in this chapter Prior to going to the hotel, they worked out at Gideon's gym. There Eva she got a glimpse of Gideon's possessive nature. While Gideon was working out in another part of the gym, one of the personal trainers spotted Eva as someone new and started offering her excellent customer service. But Gideon, seeing the trainer buzzing around Eva, pulled rank on the poor guy (Gideon owned the gym chain) to make him back off. Gideon informed the guy Eva was his girlfriend. It was the very first time Gideon used the word to describe Eva. Also significant -- outside on the sidewalk near the gym, he suddenly passionately kissed her in public. What she didn't know at the time was that Gideon had spotted a paparazzi photographer hanging out in the vicinity, and so Gideon made it easy for the guy to get "candid" shots.

 She's agreed to revise and revisit her position in Entwined, cutting Gideon some slack, if Snippet 4 is any indication:   Scowling fiercely, he crouched in front of me. “###### it. Do you think Iwant to micromanage you? There have been extenuating circumstances. Give me credit for trying to balance your independence with keeping you safe.† Wow. Hindsight didn’t just make things crystal clear; it smacked me upside the head and knocked some sense into me. “I get it.† I don’t think you do. This†–he gestured impatiently at himself– “is just a F(&^*** shell. You’re what drives me, Eva. Can you understand that? You’re my heart and soul. If something ever happened to you it would kill me, too. Keeping you safe is goddamned self-preservation! Tolerate it for me, if you won’t do it for yourself.† I surged into him, knocking him off-balance and onto his back. I kissed him hard, my heart pounding and blood roaring in my ears.  "I hate to freak you out,†I murmured between desperate kisses, “but you’ve got it real bad for me.â€

 OMG, this is great!!! I'll bet Sylvia is going to love this when she reads it  I especially like "The Unresolved Cerebrally Humorous Arguments". Hah!!! Subtitle: Gideon's Little Head Is Doing All The Thinking - And His Big Head Is Clueless"  Having fun with your clever system, I've got a few to add:  Chapter 2: Eva Doesn't Play Hard To Get -- She IS Hard to Get Result: Gideon's Got Blue Balls  Chapter 4: Gideon Can't Handle This Anymore Result: He's Still Not Getting Any Yet - But He Gets Closer  Chapter 6: Gideon Finally Gets Some Result: Gideon Can't Handle It  Chapter 8: Gideon Finally Gets A Girlfriend Result: Gideon Doesn't Know How To Handle It  Chapter 10: Gideon Almost Loses Her Result: Gideon's Got Issues

 Prison - yes. Crime victims (and in the case of murder victims, family members) commonly are informed when a convict is getting released shortly. Many times they even get notified when a convict is seeking early release on parole. The notice gives them a chance to try to prevent the convict from being granted parole.  Mental hospitals, no. Unfortunately. There's never been a long-standing system to automatically notify victims. And in recent years, very strict privacy laws on medical records has made it even harder to get information about mental patients (about any patients, actually.)  Which is one of the reasons Gideon rightfully was scared -- scared of a system where if Nathan hurt Eva, he possibly would be locked up in a mental hospital again instead of prison, treated, deemed fit for release, and sent back out into the community -- probably with Eva not being told he'd been released. Thus the danger to her would always exist.

Only in hindsight would we readers piece together what the REAL fight was about that Tuesday afternoon in the elevator lobby. Sure, they were arguing about Brett and Corrine, but when Eva asked what the problem was, Gideon snapped, "The problem is that I don't know where the you are half the time!"  Gideon was trying to control her and failing miserably -- that's the real reason he hijacked the elevator to bring Eva right to the top floor and immediately started a serious argument with her. He couldn't control her. And that's exactly what he was desperately trying to do - control her. Not sexually. He was trying to physically control her physically -- her physical security.  Sure, on the surface they were having a legitimate argument about their respective exes. Gideon must have been scared about that too underneath that anger. Eva's nagging insecurities over Corrine had been the trigger for her having kissed Brett. Gideon thought they settled that over their romantic weekend -- but here is was just two days later, and Eva had run to Brett yet again because of Corrine. AGH!!!!!  I'm picturing Gideon viewing lobby videotape of Eva walking out the door with Brett. That thing he does when he's upset, running one or both hands through his hair? He must have been pulling it out. I pity people who had to deal with him at that moment, like Angus and Scott.

Your post brings to mind how Gideon acted early afternoon Tuesday, two days before he killed Nathan, when Eva was at her absolutely unmanageable worst, security wise, and how tightly wound up he was about it. This was in the elevator lobby of Gideon's floor at the Crossfire. She was up there because he'd made the elevator go straight to the top, instead of stopping at her floor, when she arrived back after having had lunch with Brett. Â Yes, they fought about her going to lunch with Brett in retaliation for him having gone to dinner with Corrine the night before. But Eva sensed something else was really wrong -- and she tried to get him to talk to her. She even reached out to touch him and he jerked away as if she'd burned him. My belief is that he jerked away to stop himself from just grabbing her tight, so scared he was at that point. Because in the past few hours: Â She'd started walking to work, instead of staying at the hospital with Cary. She left a place she was safe and was out where Nathan could have grabbed her. Then lunchtime, she left the building. Nathan had lurked around the Crossfire at least once before (and that's the only time we know about it as readers -- there could have been others.) Even going out in public with Brett was dangerous -- here was Eva with yet another man at a time when Nathan was going postal over thoughts of other men with Eva (the "stay away from her!!!" rage he expressed while beating Cary with a baseball bat) Â Eva was in such a snit when lunch started out with Brett that she was half-hoping some photographer would get a couple's shot of them (take that, Gideon!!). Good thing that didn't happen, and not just because she would have regretted it (in fact before lunch was over, that nasty impulse had already begun fading.) A photo of Eva with Brett might have sent the stalking-Nathan over the edge again, at a time when Gideon was scrambling to figure out what to do about the danger.

The ethical thing for Gideon to do would be to be 100% honest with Corrine  .... BUT ..... right now, there's a real danger the detectives might try to interview Corrine, asking questions about when they started going out again, etc. If Detective Graves is trying to dismantle the cover story Gideon dumped Eva to go back to Corrine, she'd likely make a run at Corrine. Graves already made a run at Eva -- tricked Eva into revealing Eva dumped Gideon on Saturday (i.e. after Nathan already had been killed.) Gideon's been manipulating the media into thinking he started dating Corrine again the Monday before Nathan got killed.  So the "safe" thing to do would be to just keep his mouth shut with Corrine instead of saying "we're only friends and that's all we'll ever be." Keep his mouth shut so she can tell anyone who asks, including the cops, something along the lines of "we've been spending a lot of time together lately, and yes, it started with him asking me out to dinner that Monday ......"  Put Corrine in a position where she'd say "we've been seeing one another."  In fact, we don't know yet whether the cops already have interviewed Corrine at least once. Detective Graves busted her b*** to break Gideon's alibi, discovering the hour-long window that happened when the kitchen fire disrupted the party. Graves went back to the party hotel three times to question employees. It's possible -- I think probable -- that Graves tried asking Corrine about Gideon's movements during the party. After all, Corrine was Gideon's date. I think Graves did make a run at Corrine but specifically avoided telling Eva about it.

To one another, Eva and Cary are the brother-sister that neither one of them had. And Monica and Stanton are the good parents he never had. He's family by choice, which is every bit as meaningful as family by blood. Â What little we know of Cary's birth mother isn't good. At the very least, she was neglectful. It's possible he himself was abused by others because she failed to protect him. When Eva met him in group therapy, he had sexual issues of his own. We just don't know too many details yet. But then again, a lot of Gideon's stuff is still hidden too. Â That said ..... Cary just like Eva sometimes cross over into unhealthy behavior by "enabling" Monica. Her obsession with protecting Eva -- so bad that Dr. Petersen is treating her specifically for it -- makes her do things like rent them their expensive apartment (because it's "safe".) Â Eva accused Stanton of actually enabling her mother in a way that keeps Monica sick. What Eva (and Cary) both need to recognize that they're sometimes guilty of doing the exact same thing.

 On the surface: As far as Corrine goes, right now Gideon is platonically dating her (and yes, it is dating: going out as a couple. Gideon's own definition of dating is lengthy social time spent together without actively f******). On the surface, the social arrangement is just like it used to be with Magdalene, who he took out socially, including regularly in situations where they would be photographed as a couple. Gideon also used to hang out with female friends -- and he's spending time with Corrine again, so that counts as friendship too.  But he is NOT sleeping with Corrine. Back before Eva, Gideon dated and had female friends -- and he clearly separated them from his sex life. His sex life consisted of short-term arrangements where all he did was f***. Not even any friendly time. So right now on the surface, Gideon has just reverted back to how his public social life was conducted before he entered a serious relationship with Eva.  BUT .....  Obviously, Corrine must be reading into this "dating" as the first step toward "lovers" and then "spouses." How can she not. Especially because I think Gideon is painted into a corner where he's lying by omission to Corrine. How? By not disavowing her of her illusions she has him back. Not expressly telling her "we're only friends." He's stuck right now in a position where he's forced to fool everyone into thinking there's something more going on. The need to fool people includes Corrine -- so he's fooling her into thinking they're in some gray area where they're more than friends but not yet getting physical.  He's using her in other words.  But know what -- I think it's karma that she's fooled into thinking things are going somewhere. Because she tried fooling Eva into thinking that. She hurt Eva. Gideon used to carry around a lot of guilt about Corrine, but I think most, maybe all, of that evaporated because of how Corrine hurt Eva.

 He was a basket case by the time she finally answered her cell phone. He was shaking by the time he found her, and judging from the hoarseness of his voice, practically in tears. Struggling hard to maintain his composure -- and him a celebrity standing in the middle of some public restaurant. One of the reasons he asked Eva right away to come home with him was "I can't be in public right now."(page 145)  Because he was almost losing it.

 Thanks for finding the chapter, Laura.  And it went right over Eva's head that duh, a doorman at one of many, many properties Gideon owns in New York is on a first-name basis with Gideon's chief bodyguard.  Knowing one another by sight, sure, that's understandable. Repeatedly, Eva's been picked up and dropped off by Angus. But first name basis?  Um, hello Eva -- Gideon's having you watched over even more closely than your mother has been. He's just a lot more subtle about it. Paul the doorman probably is reporting directly to Angus now, when normally Paul would be reporting to the building manager. Paul's more than the doorman now -- he's a key person watching over the most important thing in Gideon's entire world.  We know from one of the snippets that Gideon and Eva will have a talk in Entwined about how Gideon tried to balance the need to protect Eva's security with the need for her to have some feeling of independence. Gideon was wise enough to recognize Monica's obsessions and smothering were bad for Eva. But he also for his own sanity needed (still does need to) keep her safe.

 Gideon owns the apartment building Eva (and Cary) live in, so Paul works for Cross Industries. And one of the most important things a doorman does is to provide security -- in the form of a set of human eyes -- at the entrance of a residential building. The whole reason Eva is living in a building like that is to appease her mother that it's "safe".  So let me run with this here .... Cross Industries has a history of human resources excellence. They hire skilled people and pay them well. Paul probably has some sort of solid work history in the security industry and/or had served in the military. It's why he got  a secure, well-paying job with Cross Industries.  Then Eva enters Gideon's life, and within days, Gideon found out she lives in one of his properties. I can see Paul the doorman being given a big raise and some serious behind-the-scenes special new responsibility -- make absolutely certain to keep a good eye on who comes and goes from that building. Keep an especially good eye on Eva.  How much you wanna bet that as soon as Gideon found out Nathan was in town, Paul the doorman got a special briefing, including pictures of Nathan, and got ordered to keep a very close lookout on the sidewalks and the street near the apartment building entrance.  Plus, although I can't find the exact page now, I remember some mention about Angus and Paul being familiar with one another. Eva noticed it in passing once. My guess -- as soon as Gideon made Paul part of the circle of people keeping an eye on Eva, it was Angus who supervised Paul.  OK, now I've really gone deep here. Maybe Paul is just Paul -- like the saying "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

 'Cause we're getting the mother of all snippets - an entire chapter!!!! SQUEEE!!!!!  One thing I'm thinking would be fun to do after each of us finishes Chapter One of Entwined is to go look at the very early pages of this thread, back when we had just Snapshot One -- that "Press" and "Pen" thing. We had all sorts of great theories. Now we get to see how things actually panned out. We get to figure out what Snapshot One actually signified in Chapter One.

 We're all so wrapped up in the complexities of many of the characters that we've got ourselves thinking "there's got to be more to it" about every character. Because Sylvia did an amazing job of introducing many characters as if they were just minor ones -- and it turned out they were very important, very complex people. Angus is perhaps the best example. When he first cropped up, he was nothing more than the driver -- not even named, hardly mentioned several times. We came to find out bit by bit that Angus was perhaps the only good father figure Gideon ever had.  So now we're all wondering about every character who starts off casually coming up again and again. Like Megumi. Is she really just a background character -- what you see is what you get? Or is she someone really important to the story? Agh!!!!  We've still got at least two and probably three more Crossfire novels to find out what the deal is, or isn't, with people Eva interacts with every day - from Megumi the receptionist to Paul the doorman at Eva's apartment building.  So much fun .......

 It is a pity she ran -- her insecurities took over and she fell right back into her dysfunctional way of coping. In her own way, she'd just gone on her own post-sex head trip. The shoe was on the other foot. When Gideon freaked in the limo, he withdrew deep into his internal protective shell. When Eva freaked in the hotel room, she ran away.  It would have been much better if Empowered Eva, the woman she'd been on Saturday night and again on Monday noontime in his office. Eva believed (wrongly) Gideon had used her. But the difference was on Saturday night, despite feeling awful inside, she stood up to Gideon, arguing with him while they danced and then slamming him as he was in the process of ditching her to leave early.And when Eva walked into his office on Monday, she wasn't grovelling -- she started off by making it clear he was bad for her.  Both times, Gideon was really, really sorry (Saturday and Monday evening) and both times he managed to convince Eva of that. But while he had been 100% in the wrong at the fundraiser, he wasn't at the hotel. Eva handled things badly too -- handled things worse than Gideon had.