LN Cronan

The fact Gideon asked Eva to keep that diamond ankle bracelet on so that he could f*** her wearing only that makes me think his original plan for Saturday night was to take her to his hotel room after the fundraiser.  The night's events took a much different turn than he planned, however -- good and bad. The good comes in Chapter Six, and the bad immediately follows in Chapter Seven.  Good: Eva seduced him in the back of his limo on the way to the fundraiser. She had no way of knowing it would be a turning point in his life -- after all, her knowledge of his sexual history barely scratched the surface. She did more than get him to "break rules" during that car ride. She smashed through his control fetishes that governed the only way he felt able to have intercourse was to be in complete control. It had to be in a hotel room he used exclusively for sex, the only place he'd ever had sex with any woman, including his first (and before now only) serious girlfriend. In order to come, he needed to "top" his partner by holding her down. Instead, Eva managed to "rock his world" by getting him to come in a way he didn't think was possible: her taking the lead as the top, and them doing it in the back of a limo.  Bad: As soon as Gideon came down from the sexual high, he crashed hard, unable to emotionally handle what just happened. He went on a head trip that caused him to shut down and retreat to deep inside his emotional shell. Eva assumed (wrongly) she was the one who messed up, so she went on one of her own head trips that had her run away (in a figurative sense -- she avoided Gideon as much as possible for the remainder of the evening.) And they ended up leaving the fundraiser separately. Gideon rushed out early to go do something (we'd learn much later it was to help Corrine long-distance, who'd reached him on his cell phone in the middle of the event.) Eva ended up leaving alone very soon after Gideon essentially abandoned her -- in tears being driven home by her mother's chauffeur -- not only feeling rejected, but having her worst insecurity buttons pushed hard by the woman who Gideon had been platonically dating up to that point, Magdalene Perez.

So much hawtness to choose from in Chapter Five .....  .... but my favorite is the final paragraph. Gideon's managed to make Eva agree to come (pun intended) with him as his date that night to a high profile fundraiser for a children's charity. His parting words as he tells her when he'll be back to her apartment later to pick her up:  "Seven o'clock, Eva." He reached down and touched my ankle, his fingertips caressing the diamond anklet I'd put on in preparation for the evening. "And keep this on. I want to f*** you while you're wearing nothing else." (page 79)

Chapter A Day Re-Read Project - Today is Chapter Six of Bared  This chapter covers several hours of Saturday, day six of the story, starting in Eva's apartment prior to him picking her up for their first date. The chapter ends in his limo.  Key plot developments: A pivotal scene in the saga between Eva and Gideon is in this chapter. They make love for the first time. Pages 88-95. We learn several more important things about Gideon, especially about his early family life. We also learn a few more thing about Eva recent past.  Remember, Sylvia's homework assignment is for us to choose a favorite line or paragraph from each chapter after we've read it. There's no time limit on picking the quote - today, tomorrow, whenever you're done reading.  Discussion about chapters has been jumping forward to later chapters as well as back to chapters already read. It's fun to connect dots in either direction. Â

Chapter Five of Bared To You - The Readers Guide  This chapter covers most of Saturday, day six of the story, starting in the morning in Eva's apartment and ending there early evening.  Key plot developments: Despite the fact that just one day before Gideon was insisting (and Eva was agreeing) they would not date, Gideon asks her to be his date that night at a high profile society event.  This chapter also includes the second instance Gideon and Eva engage in serious sexual contact (the first time had been in his office the day before.) We learn a little more about Gideon's background, this time through Monica after Cary casually mentions to Monica that Gideon's become interested in Eva.  New characters: None in this chapter. The next chapter, however, will feature first mentions of several characters in Gideon's life.   Gideon asks Eva out On Friday night, Gideon had struck a deal with Eva that set the boundaries of how their sexual relationship would start. He'd agreed to her major condition they spend some friendly time together so that they could develop a personal connection before Eva would go to bed with him. In fact, they spend their first friendly time together over drinks at a nightclub he owns. Eva agreed to his rule they would not date - because he keeps his sexual relationships separate from dating and even from his friendships. Besides, all along, Eva had been telling herself she didn't want a relationship at this point in her busy life. Yet in this scene, Saturday evening, he further changes his rules by combining the two things he separates: sex and dating. Gideon invites Eva to be his date that night at a high-profile society event, a charity fundraiser for an advocacy center that helps abused children. Gideon had already been planning to attend this event anyway. But he found out Eva also would be attending, because her socialite mother supports this same charity. Eva's first reaction is to try to turn him down. "That's not what I meant when I said we should spend time together." (page 75). When asked why she doesn't want to go with Gideon, she explains it's a high profile event -- an obvious reference to the fact she knows Gideon is a celebrity and if she goes to something like that with him, she'll come under media scrutiny. Plus she fears her mother will make assumptions. But in the end she agrees.  Gideon moves the sexual relationship further along Gideon's way to get Eva to agree isn't to argue with her -- instead, he uses his sexual skills to further bring Eva under his spell. For the second time in as many days, he starts kissing her and quickly gets her onto a couch beneath him, this time in her apartment instead of his office. The office incident went only as far as petting, but this time Gideon performs digital and oral sex on her, getting her to come several times while she lays there submissive. He remains fully clothed throughout, and things do not progress any further than him getting her off. Immediately afterward, he leaves, telling her he'll be back to pick her up at 7 p.m.  Gideon's crush draws attention from other people Cary wasn't home at the time Gideon showed up early evening, but he is home Saturday morning to witness an incident in which Gideon makes his (Gideon's) first romantic gesture toward Eva. Guessing correctly Eva would have woken up with a hangover from having partied Friday night, Gideon has delivered a wrapped present - a "hangover cure" for Eva to drink, some sort of hair-of-the-dog small bottle of liquor. Later that morning, Eva and Cary meet her mother at a day spa trip with two purposes: Monica spending quality personal time with the pair of them, and all of them getting beauty treatments ahead of the high society event they're all scheduled to attend that night. Up to this point, Eva hadn't mentioned a word about Gideon to her mother, because Eva didn't want the hassle of her mother trying to help things along in her (Monica's) obvious goal of making sure Eva has the same sort of financially secure future Monica built for herself - landing a rich husband. But Cary lets the cat out of the bag - Gideon Cross has a crush on Eva. Monica is delighted. Eva insists they're just friends, saying it in a manner that makes it clear even that (friends) is a stretch. She also tries (in vain) to make her mother back off on any plans to meddle. From what Monica tells her daughter about what she (Monica) knows concerning Gideon's celebrity status: His social status is that of being one of the richest men in the world, somewhere around number 25 on the Forbes list of the top billionaires. As is usual with the super-rich, he's a philanthropist too - in his case, supporting numerous children's charities. Relationship status, he's an extremely eligible bachelor, straight and with a reputation as a ladies' man and " .... he's known to prefer brunettes ...." (page 72).

 You're very welcome, Julie. I am fortunate to have been given two talents: a natural speed reader and an ability to write. The speed reading allows me to devour books. The ability to write earns me a living.  I figured since I'd want to discuss practically everything that jumped out at me in each chapter anyway ..... why not sum it all up in one big post anyway to help others chime in too. Thus the Reader's Guide each day.  And I've saved each of these guides to my own computer so I'll have a master timeline on hand when on June 4, I sit down to devour Entwined in one sitting.

 When Eva first crossed his path, Gideon's approach to sex was rigid: he kept sex partners separate from all other areas of his life: friendship, business .... everything. By Chapter Five, Eva finally pieced that together and told him as much -- and he conceded that was in fact, his usual position.  But by then he'd already begun shifting his position, because his "system" wasn't going to work. Not work for Eva, and as it became increasingly apparent, not work for himself either.  Under his usual custom-level system, Eva should have instantly given in to his desire to f**** her. Without question. Experience taught Gideon that whenever he told a woman he wanted to f**** her, the instant answer was yes. But no woman was allowed to expect anything beyond sex.  Eva didn't have a comfort level with simply f****** men anymore. That's what she'd been doing self-destructively for years, but Dr. Travis taught her to respect herself enough to quit sleeping around. Now, she believed in mutual self-respect with it cae to sex, which meant she and a lover needed to be on friendly terms.  Thus Gideon agreed on Friday that he would spend friendly time with her outside of bed. They both agreed this would NOT mean they were on a date. They shared friendly time at his nightclub Friday night -- which would set the stage for Eva feeling comfortable having sex with him soon.  Yet the very next day, Saturday, what did Gideon do? Take her as his date to a very high profile society function, complete with a red carpet press photo gauntlet. My guess: he wasn't even consciously aware of it yet, but he wanted exclusivity with Eva. And "Friends With Benefits" wasn't going to guarantee that. Because if he and Eva were simply friendly sex partners, that would leave her free at any time to enter a full-fledged relationship with someone else. She could go get a real boyfriend any time she so choose.  Which is why by Monday, Gideon bent his rule even further by asking her to (and getting her to agree to) becoming a full-fledged couple. Spending lots of time together both in and out of bed in an arrangement that included sexual exclusivity on both sides. By then, Gideon genuinely wanted to spend as much time as possible with her, because of how good it felt to be with her. And his jealous insecurity beneath the surface had already kicked in -- no way did he want any other man having Eva.

 The only schedule is which chapter is being re-read: one chapter per day. Today we're on Chapter Five of Bared To You. After each of us has finished reading a chapter, Sylvia would like to hear from fans which line or paragraph each of us liked best in that particular chapter.  There's no set schedule for which chapters to discuss. We've been going back and forth, as it turns out, because of connecting dots backward and forward.  I hope I didn't confuse you by my system of both posting the summary of Chapter Four this morning as well as the post about Chapter Five being the chapter of the day today.  Knowing that people read at different speeds and recognizing that there will be days in this fun project that many of us won't get to read at all, I've been creating a sort of daily cheat sheet -- a Reader's Guide. After asking for some members thoughts, I set a schedule for when I'll aim to post each of these guides: the day after each chapter was read. For example, we read Chapter Four yesterday, so I posted the summary today. We're reading Five today, so I'll post that summary tomorrow.  If it causes confusion, I'll change the schedule. More thoughts, friends? Should I post the summary guide on the same day that particular chapter is on schedule, instead of waiting until the morning after?

Chapter A Day Re-Read Project - Today is Chapter Five of Bared  This chapter covers most of Saturday, day six of the story, starting in the morning in Eva's apartment and ending there early evening.  Key plot developments: Despite the fact that just one day before Gideon was insisting (and Eva was agreeing) they would not go out on dates, Gideon asks her to be his date that night at a high profile society event - a fundraiser for an advocacy group that helps victims of sexual abuse. Gideon figured out Eva would be attending anyway, because of her mother's support of the charity. He already was scheduled to attend as well. So he convinces Eva the pair of them should go together. This chapter also includes the second instance Gideon and Eva engage in serious sexual contact (the first time had been in his office the day before.) The second instance is in her apartment, where he'd shown up on short notice to ask her out to the fundraiser that night. We learn a little more about Gideon's background, this time through Monica after Cary casually mentions to Monica that Gideon's become interested in Eva.  Remember, Sylvia's homework assignment is for us to choose a favorite line or paragraph from each chapter after we've read it.

Chapter Four of Bared -- The Reader's Guide  This chapter covers day five of the story, Friday, from early afternoon through Friday night. It picks up immediately where chapter four left off, in Gideon's office, covers the rest of the day in Eva's office, early evening in her apartment, and ends late Friday night in a nightclub Gideon owns.  Key plot developments: Gideon and Eva settle on mutual terms for her accepting his sexual proposition. He agrees to her condition they become friendly by spending some time together outside the bedroom. However, Gideon upset Eva more than he could realize because he'd electronically tracked her down that night.  Eva asks her mother for a joint session with her (Monica's) therapist because Monica had secretly been tracking Eva. Eva meets Cary's new boyfriend, Trey, for the first time.   New characters: Monica Stanton - though already mentioned numerous times as a character, Chapter Four is where she herself appears in a scene for the first time. Trey, Cary's new boyfriend.   Gideon and Eva strike a deal (pages 63-67) Friday night, Eva and Cary went out clubbing and ended up getting lured to a nightclub Gideon owns. Gideon manipulated this so that he could have another shot at trying to talk Eva into agreeing to go bed with him. This time, he manages to get her to say yes. What broke the impasse was Gideon's willingness to go along with Eva's condition they get to know one another on a friendly basis. This would not mean dating -- both were clear (at least on Friday) that both of them had neither the time nor inclination for a relationship at this point in their busy lives. Gideon, Eva figured out (and he confirmed it was true) segregates sex from the rest of his life - friendship, work, everything. His rule is " ... to have mutually exclusive sexual relationships and friendships." (page 64) Eva's rule: "I need a personal connection with the men I sleep with. It doesn't have to be intense or deep, but sex needs to be more than an emotionless transaction for me." (page 65) The deal - to do exactly what they were doing at the time in the club - spending friendly time together some place other than a bedroom.  Tracking Eva's movements - an issue. Eva, already upset by just having found out earlier Friday that her mother had been secretly tracking Eva's movements through a cell phone, became very upset when she found out Gideon had pulled a similar stunt - tracking her down through a credit card. "You visited another of my clubs earlier. Your credit card popped up and your drinks were recorded. And Cary Taylor is listed on the rental agreement for your apartment." (Page 62 - turns out Gideon's property holdings include the building where she lives.) The consequence of this revelation was Eva getting very upset that his accessing her financial info came across as a form of stalking. "My mom stalks me, too, and she sees a shrink," Eva tells him. (page 62)  Mom's stalking - time to call her shrink again Monica appears directly for the first time as a character when she phones Eva at work right at the end of the day. This call gives Eva the chance to bring up with her mother what she (Eva) learned over lunch - Monica had been tracking Eva's movements around New York. Eva wants to hash out the issue in a joint appointment with Dr. Petersen, Monica's therapist. It's not the first time the Eva has accompanied her mother to see Dr. Petersen about her mother's anxiety issues Monica agrees to have Eva accompany her to see the therapist - and so for now, Eva drops the matter during the phone call. With that, Monica turns happy, girlishly excited about a fundraising dinner Eva (and Cary) are accompanying her to on Saturday night. The other thing we learn in Monica's first, albeit brief, direct appearance is "Monica Tramell Barker Mitchell Stanton was in her element at society functions, a gilded, shining beauty who never lacked male attention in her life." (page 50) However, it turns out Monica's interference with Eva's safety isn't quite settled -- when Eva gets home, a phone call from her new Krav Maga instructor reveals the studio will be closed for a week so that some work can be done to upgrade the place -- work Stanton is paying for.  Cary's love life - a glimpse Eva arrives home to find Cary's new boyfriend is there, someone she meets for the first time. Trey is around Eva's age. He's in veterinary school, and he works part time as a photographer's assistant. Cary met him on a modeling photo shoot. Eva can see with her own eyes what Cary later confirms: Trey is a nice guy who obviously likes Cary a lot. Trey doesn't have much time to get to know Cary's roommate that evening, because he had to leave for class shortly after Eva got home. But the three of them agree to get together for pizza the following Tuesday.

 What made the situation even funnier at that point (him on the phone with her a 5 p.m. Friday, still pestering her) is that upstairs three hours ago, he most certainly had the touch! He had her on that couch and she was so hot for him she would have done whatever. It still intrigues me about where things would have gone if the two of them hadn't gotten interrupted.  Now, three hours later, she's gotten herself back under control and her assertiveness has come right back. Poor Gideon .... that's NOT how it's supposed to work. He used to women being totally hooked from the first taste of him. Instead, Eva's back to her sassiness -- and still has her power intact too. Despite how good that kissing/fondling had been, she still wasn't going to settle for strangers with benefits, no matter how hot she was for Gideon. Go gurl!

Eva never could have loved Brett anyway back in the day. She was still too much of a hot mess to have been able to love any guy. Â Her thing with Brett back then was pure sex-driven desperation, one of the serious symptoms of how the damage Nathan did was messing up her life. She was looking for love in the wrong place -- strictly through sex -- and she was so desperate in her attempts she'd even degrade herself. Â But right around the time this was going on, she'd also started therapy with Dr. Travis. I see Eva walking away from Brett back then as one of the first major steps on her road back to sanity. She figured out she was degrading herself -- and more importantly, she decided she deserved better than that. She grew some self respect.

What I especially like about the flippant remark Eva makes over the phone in Chapter Four is how she unwittingly hit the nail right on the head. Gideon was suffering a bad case of what Cary would call blue balls. Eva suggested he deal with it by f****** some woman who worships him. Problem solved and he can go right back to his obsessive-compulsive life.  Ouch. On the surface, it's the first time Gideon acted a little insulted. But underneath, he must have squirmed when he realized Eva had pretty much described to a T his automatic remedy for whenever he was feeling h*****. And on another level, his admiration for Eva must have risen. Here was some amazing woman who most certainly was not " ....salivating at his feet."

My all-time favorite Eva sassy snarkiness is in today's chapter, Four, on page 51. Gideon called her just after 5 p.m., still so hot and bothered he's still pestering her. This is what she tells him:  " .... I have some friendly advice. Go spend time with a woman who salivates at your feet and makes you feel like a god. F*** her until neither one of you can walk. When you see me on Monday you'll be totally over it and your life will return to its usual obsessive-compulsive order." (Bared page 51)  And I love that less than a minute later, she hung up on him by saying, " ... I've got to go. I have a date with my vibrator."Â

 I did post it yesterday, but rather than having you go back a few pages, I'll repost here. I did something a little different than a favorite quote (because the preapproved orifice is just too easy to love, and I think Eva snarks even better in Chapter Four.) So what I picked instead were two Gideon quotes I think are wicked important:   "Establishing parameters in the beginning makes it less likely that there'll be exaggerated expectations and disappointments at the conclusion ..... There are no mixed signals in my private affairs. You want me to blur that line. I can't think of a good reason to."  I find the quotes really important for two reasons: 1. In a nutshell, this defines Gideon's entire approach to women when Eva first met him. 2. Within hours, he's going to blur the line anyway, because he wants her sooooooo much.

He was walking around in an unconscious fog until one day he saw the light - Golden.Â

The physical description we have of Gideon's stepfather is on page 200 of Bared. Eva thinks he looks like a college professor. Kelsey Grammer is what jumps to my mind. Â I don't see Vidal Sr. as any sort of hottie, despite the fact Christopher Jr. is god looking. I think Christopher got most of his looks from his stunning mother, Elizabeth. Â I think Elizabeth married Vidal (and has stayed with him all these years) for his money. She's even more obsessed than Monica about financial security, traumatized by what happened with Gideon's father. Geoffrey Cross' crimes and subsequent suicide would have left Elizabeth penniless and homeless -- literally. Just like with the real-life Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. The Feds seized every last asset, including Madoff's home. His wife was literally thrown off the property by court order. The home and every valuable in it had been purchased with money stolen from investors through fraud. Â Elizabeth would have lost it all -- the home, her jewelry, everything. Even any assets she brought into the marriage (for example, trust funds) would have been frozen while the courts sorted everything out, a process that could have taken years. Â So I think Vidal swooped in, getting a trophy wife right away. Geoffrey was barely gone when Vidal got Elizabeth to marry him immediately. She wasn't after him because he was hot -- far from it. She took him because she was desperate, is my theory.

I think what AMC and Donnad both didn't mean Elizabeth and Corrine are literally related -- that is, they're blood kin. I think they meant the fact that Corrine physically resembles Elizabeth in some important ways is a clear sign Gideon's attraction to Corrine was symbolically related to his Mommy issues.  Eva raging insecurities convinced her that Gideon had been unconsciously seeking out brunette women all these years because Corrine, his first lover, was brunette. Eva fears that Corrine always has had some sort of unshakable sexual hold over Gideon, that Gideon never got over his desire for Corrine. All those brunettes since Corrine are proof, Eva believes. This is Eva's raging insecurities speaking -- it'll never last between her and Gideon, because of Corrine. In fact, it's likely Gideon will quit physically desiring Eva soon, because Eva isn't even his "type."  I believe it is true that Gideon (prior to Eva) had been unconsciously seeking out brunettes, but it was because it relates to his Mommy issues. I think that's what Donnad and AMC meant too -- the relationship between Elizabeth and Corrine is symbolic. Corrine is an upper-class beautiful blue-eyed brunette just like Gideon's mother.

My hope is that finally, in Chapter 12, the murder case will go away -- will go away because of a theory I have:Â Detective Graves messed for just one instant, but very badly, when she laid the trap for Eva and Gideon. Â When Graves approached Eva, Eva immediately made crystal clear she didn't want to talk to her without a lawyer. Eva expressly invoked her constitutional right to have an attorney present for any questioning. Graves immediately made crystal clear she (Graves) wasn't there to question Eva. Graves said she (Graves) would do all the talking. Simply talking to Eva doesn't violate the right-to-an-attorney. Cops sometimes do this, walk that line, when they're pushing hard -- talk at someone (suspect, witness), often to rattle the person because he/she is refusing to be questioned. Graves screwed up badly because she stepped over the line when she got Eva to confirm that the cell phone call Graves saw absolutely devastate Gideon on Saturday morning was Eva breaking up with Gideon. She asked Eva a question. Violated Eva's right to a lawyer. That poisons the evidence she got (that answer about the break-up) as well as other evidence that answer leads to. Â It could be that the DA's office is forced to give up any plans to prosecute Gideon because of a police mistake irrevocably poisoned a crucial part of the case: evidence Gideon did have motive to kill Nathan. Â There are a couple of theories I have about why the murder case could finally go away almost immediately (in under two weeks from when Reflected ended). My main theory is that Graves screwed up badly enough that they'll have an almost insurmountable task to get a conviction. So the DA is going to decide against charging Gideon, period, because proving motive is going to be too hard.

Now, my first thought, connecting this with the previous chapter in which there was a sports car, is thinking there has been some sort of dramatic shift forward in the murder case -- in the attempt to dismantle Gideon's cover story he had no motive. Â What happened when Gideon first broke his total "radio silence" with Eva (that week-plus of absolutely no contact whatsoever in any way)? He approached her on a crowded elevator in the lobby of the Crossfire, boarding that elevator in front of witnesses (and in view of the lobby-level security camera system). That same week, the cops seized copies of office security footage from Stanton, so it's a safe bet they've been pulling video from Gideon too. Â What happened the next day? Gideon and Eva ended up taking a ride alone together in one of his cars. While they were parked and Eva was sitting in his lap to hold/comfort him, a street cop broke it up - threatening to cite them for indecency unless they moved right away. It's possible the cop ran the plate on the car. Â Two big risks Gideon took in as many days. And by the next evening (when Reflected crosses over into the open of Entwined), what's happened? Detective Graves has spoken to Eva (probably to set her and Gideon up). Eva ran right to Gideon. Then she left almost right away. Fast forward to the excerpt of Entwined, one hour later, Gideon disguised himself to sneak into her bedroom to see her -- it was "dangerous" for him to do so. Â My guess -- here in Chapters 11 and 12, about halfway into the novel, is the outcome of the trap Graves laid in her (Graves') attempt to bust Gideon's cover of having dumped Eva, just like Graves busted a hole in Gideon's alibi.

The first description we have of the Crossfire, from page 4 of Bared to You  The Crossfire was seriously impressive, a sleek spire of gleaming sapphire that pieced the clouds. I knew from my previous interviews that the interior on the other side of the ornate copper-framed revolving doors was just as awe-inspiring, with golden-veined marble floors and walls and brushed-aluminum security desk and turnstiles.  The walls and floor in this snapshot are that kind of marble, and the elevator doors are brushed-aluminum (which would keep in the overall theme of using that sort of metal in the interior.  Gideon and his elevators!!!! Carries around that master key to make it easier to corner Eva!

Snapshot #12 just went up. Here's the link:Â http://www.sylviaday.com/2013/04/26/entwined-snapshot-12/ Â It's an elevator lobby. The doors are brushed steel and the foyer walls/floor are golden-veined marble. This has to be the Crossfire. The overall decor theme of marble and brushed steel is on page 4 of Bared to You. Â Ah hah -- makes sense we have been re-reading the early chapters of Bared this week.

 I think so too. For one thing, this would have made it easier for Victor to be able to have visits with Eva when she was younger. We know he made an effort to be in her life, and that would have been easier when she was little if they lived in the same state.  It might make further sense that Eva decided to get her own place in San Diego when she was approximately age 20. It was somewhere around this time that Monica would have married Stanton. Wherever Monica had been living prior to getting married for the third time, she obviously moved to New York City once she did marry Stanton. So Eva didn't follow at that time -- she decided to stay in California.  It is clear that when Bared opens, Eva had just moved to New York City, specifically to start her new career in advertising, and that she never lived in New York before.  I do wonder how Victor's visitation with Eva was arranged back when she was so young. It's made clear Victor and Monica had little if any face-to-face contact. Perhaps Eva's paternal grandmother (Victor's mother) was the go-between. Her name also had been Eva -- Monica kindly compromised when she refused to give the baby Victor's last name, Reyes, and instead insisted on the last name Trammel, which was Monica's last name (her maiden name). She did give the baby her Grandmother Reyes' first name.

And actually, she did start practicing flashes of assertiveness toward Gideon during the whole crisis, even before she morphed into New Eva. Â A major step forward was her dumping Gideon-- her refusing to tolerate what amounted to emotional abuse. Don't howl fellow posters -- Gideon's motives were "pure" not abusive. However, he was manipulating Eva into the role he felt she had to play, and the cumulative effect of his actions were seriously damaging to her psyche. He knew he was hurting her, badly. He knew she was suffering deeply. He still kept it up anyway. Â So just like she had all those years ago with Brett, Eva reached a low point where even she decided enough was enough and she would no longer willingly tolerate an intolerable situation. With Brett, the issue had been the flash of insight she was acting like a s*** simply to try to land him, and she walked away (well, pulled one of her runners and disappeared without explanation, but at least she grew a pair.) Â With Gideon, she had every reason to believe (wrong though she was) he had gone on the ultimate head trip when it came to sex. And she'd enough. The same dynamic as the post-limo-sex headtrip: his knee-jerk reaction was to pull away because he couldn't handle giving up sexual control. She did take him back though, against her better judgment at the time. The same dynamic as his post-first-nightmare-she-witnessed headtrip: His knee-jerk reaction was to end things because he couldn't handle her knowing the truth. She did take him back though, because by then she had fallen in love. It was reasonable for her assume the Nathan pictures were the same deal: his knee-jerk reaction was he was no longer able to look at her body. However, he crossed a line by getting involved with Corrine again (by then, Eva had excellent reasons to believe he was f****** Corrine.) So this time, it was Eva who pulled away. She pulled away, I feel, because she had finally developed some degree of sexual self-respect. She knew what she didn't want to be anymore -- the former very broken young woman who felt the only way she could get love was through sex. Who slept around in a bid to fill the void Nathan had brutally installed. Who degraded herself with Brett. But who had entered her relationship with Gideon fully aware of her insecurities and so had set a non-negotiable condition: sexual exclusivity with one another. As soon as he violated that (so she believed) she stood at the crossroad: would she settle for scraps, or would she hold true to her new personal standard of self respect. She picked self respect.

After re-reading chapters one through three, something fell into place for me that makes sense to me that Eva herself is partly to blame for everyone (Stanton, Monica and even Gideon) having kept her in the dark about Nathan.  Eva has a bad habit of simply caving into the wishes of others when it comes to her personal safety. Other people unilaterally decide how to handle a situation, and Eva let them, consciously or unconsciously. She started out this story too passive too often. Fortunately, by the end of Reflected, she grew a pair and began practicing assertiveness.  Bared to You Chapter One revealed why Eva lives in such an opulent apartment in Manhattan, even though the job she's about to start is just entry-level professional. Her rich mother and stepfather, Monica and Stanton, have insisted on it (and are paying for it) because it's safe environment (i.e. doorman guarding the entrance, etc.) Then in Chapter Three, Stanton had decided how to balance Eva's desire to take Krav Maga classes in Brooklyn and Monica's distress about it. He has ordered his bodyguard-driver to drive Eva to and from her classes. Eva gave in. So is it any wonder then, when Nathan tried blackmailing them, that Stanton and Monica decided on their own what to do -- including not even telling Eva about the situation (and thus warning her Nathan was in town).  As far as Gideon goes, Eva also established a pattern of often bending to his wishes. He's a control freak, and Eva unconsciously enabled him -- so she enabled his treating her badly in Reflected.  Gideon also had decided (just like Stanton and Monica) how he handled the Nathan situation, which also included keeping Eva ignorant of everything. Gideon took his solution to the extreme, killing Nathan, and as part of that, he took to the extreme keeping Eva in the dark the entire time. He distanced himself from her, because he decided this would protect her from the police, if he got caught. But he created the distance by being cruel to her.  When Gideon first radically changed how he was treating Eva (i.e. began hurting her) she knew something was seriously wrong. She tried to demand explanations when it first started happening. But he wouldn't talk -- and so she backed off on pressing him for answers. That's Old Eva. New Eva would have refused to accept the brush-off, telling him "that won't cut it, Ace."  Near the very end of Reflected, Eva herself, by digging in deep and facing her insecurities, changed herself by dropping the passivity and becoming more assertive. She doesn't go so far yet as demanding answers out of Gideon, but she made progress by starting to demand explanations from other people: his mother (about the abuse) Dr. Lucas (about his probable role in the abuse cover-up) and Corrine (the truth that Gideon didn't f*** Corrine in his office that day and isn't sleeping with her, period.)

Day Four of the Read A Chapter A Day project. Chapter Four of Bared is today's goal. Â This chapter covers day five of the story, Friday, from early afternoon through Friday night. It picks up immediately where chapter four left off, in Gideon's office, covers the rest of the day in Eva's office, early evening in her apartment, and ends late Friday night in a nightclub. Â Key plot developments: Gideon and Eva settle on mutual terms for her accepting his sexual proposition. He agrees to her condition they become friendly by spending some time together outside the bedroom, and she agrees that friendly time does not count as dating. Eva meets Cary's new boyfriend, Trey, for the first time. Eva asks her mother for a joint session with her (Monica's) therapist to talk about the fact Monica had been using a cell phone to secretly track Eva's movements.