53 pages • 1 hour read
A Merry Little Meet Cute
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Chapter 26-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 26 Summary: “Bee”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of R-rated sexual content, sexual harassment, antigay bias, mental illness, death, and cursing.
After a long sleep, Bee wonders how Dominic Diamond found out about her. She calls Jack Hart and leaves a scathing voicemail. Then, she reads the press release that Steph composed for Nolan, which refers to sex work as “obscene” and claims, “Mr. Shaw is not associated with pornography nor does he condone the predatory nature of pornography” (355). When Nolan calls, he tries to convince Bee that the words are a game or a show, but for Bee, the criticism is real. She is aware of the double standard in which Nolan can be admired for his sexual exploits but she is judged and accused of working in the porn industry. Nolan protests that Bee became his fantasy and he loves her, but Bee realizes that he wants to keep their relationship a secret because sex work is so often viewed as shameful by the mainstream. Bee says that she needs Nolan to love her in public, for the whole world to see.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Nolan”
The day after Christmas, Nolan is upset about his conversation with Bee and the things people are saying about her online. He feels like he doesn’t know what the right answer is to anything. He talks with his mother about what comes next and promises they will figure things out even if he can’t find work. His mother guesses what he feels for Bee, and Nolan realizes that love means standing by someone even when things are hard. He decides to act on this knowledge.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Bee”
Bee talks with Jack, who had called to warn her that Dominic Diamond was asking questions about her. Bee questions whether she was right in assuming that the audiences for the Hope Channel and the audiences for her adult films are completely different. Teddy and Bee meet with Gretchen and Pearl, and Bee is surprised when Gretchen defends her. She isn’t happy that Bee and Teddy didn’t tell her about their careers in the first place, but Gretchen says, “[T]here’s nothing bad or shameful about sex work. The only difference between you and most of Hollywood is that they sell the lie of sex and you’re selling the real thing” (372-73). Gretchen says that everyone deserves magic and asks Bee if she would be willing to finish filming the movie. Bee reflects, “I was done apologizing for who I was. If I was going to finish Duke the Halls, it would be for me. It would be because I deserved to have it all” (375). She decides that she can be the wholesome holiday film star and the “porn princess.”
Chapter 29 Summary: “Nolan”
Nolan arrives at his friend Isaac’s Los Angeles home in a pizza van he has borrowed from Kallum. Isaac is fashionably dressed but sad over the loss of his wife, and his house is immaculate and empty. Isaac says that he threw his phone into the ocean. As they stand on the balcony watching the sea, they discuss how they both had an image they needed to maintain for INK. However, now, Nolan says, “I just want to be me—not the manufactured version of a bad boy or a reformed bad boy. Just me” (381).
Chapter 30 Summary: “Bee”
Bee finishes filming and flies home to spend New Year’s with her moms in Texas. On New Year’s Eve, she Facetimes Sunny, who reveals that she has adopted a cat. They discuss the articles emerging online that defend Bee. Bee is slightly encouraged, though she’s decided that “living and dying by the court of public opinion [i]s not sustainable” (386). Bee sits with her moms and watches an interview of Nolan by Dominic Diamond, in which Nolan defends Bee and reminds Dominic, “Our whole job is to sell the human experience. Actors, musicians, artists of any kind” (389). Nolan says he no longer feels obligated to give fans every piece of himself and declares that he loves Bee. Bee’s moms call her to the door to meet Nolan, who has shown up in the pizza delivery van. Bee tells Nolan that she loves him, too.
Chapter 31 Summary: “Nolan”
Nolan goes with Bee to her room. He’s amused to see pictures of himself from his INK days plastered all over her bedroom walls and ceiling. They have sex and talk afterward. Bee asks how he would feel if she continued with ClosedDoors, and Nolan says he’s not jealous of people she has sex with, only people she’s close to. He tells her he wants her heart. They wonder what will happen with the movie and Nolan’s career but decide that they can face the future together. Bee asks Nolan to sing her an INK song as she falls asleep.
Epilogue Summary: “Teddy Ray Fletcher”
Seven months later, Teddy shows up at Bee and Nolan’s Los Angeles house, bringing a fruit salad to their housewarming party. Nolan now has a job as a judge for a reboot of Boy Band Bootcamp, and both he and Bee are cast in a sequel for Duke the Halls after the media storm created interest in the movie. Bee has a role on a television show about a former nun, and Teddy has been hired to produce more movies for the Hope Channel. Teddy reflects, “The people he hadn’t thought existed when he’d started this project—people who liked cheerful holiday shit and unabashed raunch—were now both clearly visible and clearly ready to spend their money” (407). Teddy wonders what is going on with his son, Angel, who seems to be avoiding Luca, but is distracted when Steph shows up in a pantsuit. She asks him if he wants to have sex, and Teddy agrees.
Chapter 26-Epilogue Analysis
These final chapters deliver the expected romance-genre beats for the resolution of the story: the third-act breakup, in which it appears that the leads have parted for good; the grand gesture, in which one character takes a gamble and does something dramatic to get the other back; and the reconciliation and mutual declarations of love, which lead to the happy ending. The novel’s Epilogue echoes and confirms the happy ending by giving Teddy a love interest also, as well as setting up Angel and Luca as the romantic leads for the next story in the Christmas Notch series.
Nolan’s realization about the true nature of love—which he defines as standing by someone, no matter what—is an echo of the novel’s discussion about the true nature of Christmas, which Gretchen defines as a gift that keeps giving. This definition suits Nolan and Bee’s relationship because the major obstacle throughout has been Nolan not standing by Bee: He is absent when she’s thrown from the horse, after promising to stay with her, and he suggests that they have to hide their relationship.
This is particularly painful to Bee because of the shaming she’s encountered both for her shape—including ex-boyfriends who don’t want their families to know about her—as well as the shame she encounters in her job, in which she is also a secret that her subscribers and watchers don’t want their families to know about. Nolan’s public declaration repairs this breach and provides the conclusion for both their character arcs. For both characters, the last chapters contain a reintegration into their families and friend circles as well as reunion with one another, and suitably, the happy ending in the Epilogue shows them living openly together, with their careers boosted rather than harmed by the buzz around Duke the Halls.
These chapters allow the authors to overtly frame their body-positive, sex-positive approach and talk back to critics by pointing out that the tendency to shame rests on an assumption that only certain types of bodies are desirable or acceptable, bringing together the themes of The Pursuit of Pleasure and The Painful Effects of Discrimination. They also respond to conventional judgments about what kind of sexual activity is condoned and what is condemned. While the book’s grounds for conflict have rested on widespread external judgments that sex work is immoral, obscene, or degrading as compared to mainstream work, the characters of Nolan and Gretchen assert the novel’s stance that sex—and sex work—is nothing to be ashamed of, despite the pejorative perceptions of some.
Moreover, through the character of Bee, the authors confirm the body-positive message of the novel, showing the healing resolution of the inner conflict and self-doubt that has been caused by others’ discriminatory behavior toward her. While the novel confronts debates over whether pornographic content is exploitative or the industry is predatory toward women, Gretchen and Pearl’s defense of Bee, and the happy ending for the major characters, confirms the novel’s argument that women should be allowed to enjoy love and sex, romance and porn, cheerful holiday rom coms and whatever else brings them pleasure. In noting the many second chances that Nolan has gotten, Gretchen also points to the double standard that still exists in pockets of mainstream media in which men are permitted a larger variety of sexual activity and expression than women are.
This feminist argument falls in line with the novel’s themes about the freedom to pursue pleasure and the message that a woman should be able to pursue whatever goals and dreams she chooses. For Nolan and Bee, the happy ending to the romance does indeed deliver it all: romantic love, sexual fulfillment, a stable partnership, and financial security.
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