Help A Bitch Out

HaBO: She Works as a Waitress at Her Ex’s Hotel

This HaBO comes from A Traveller, who is looking for an older Mills & Boon romance. Content warning for the description below:

Long time reader, first time HABO asker here! I ran through a gazillion Harlequins/Mills & Boons during the early 2000s (a lot of them were published in the 80s and 90s), and every so often I think of one and then go crazy trying to remember the name/author.

This one starts with the female protagonist working as a waitress in a hotel bar, and her ex walks in with his new girlfriend – turns out he’s the new owner of the hotel. They had met when she was very young – I think it ended badly due to unexpected pregnancy, a miscarriage, and her father telling him it was deliberate for… money reasons?

Back in the present, he’s being judgmental, but then slowly learns she actually studied to be a teacher, and is working this job only till school reopens. She lives with an old grumpy guy she met randomly and who is now like a pseudo father figure to her (he maybe had dementia?), and who she lets the ex think is her current lover. And there was a scene where he comes into the changing room at the hotel to yell at her about something while she’s peeling an apple for herself, and she ends up slicing her hand badly, so he takes her to the hospital. And someone (maybe the ex’s girlfriend?) ordered a pink squirrel at some point, which I think I remember only because this was the first time I had heard of this drink and had no idea what it was (not sure I still do).

Would love to find this or at least remember the name if possible, because all these weirdly specific details are driving me crazy.

God, he better grovel so hard.

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  1. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    I have no idea what the HABO is, alas, but for an updated version of the trope, Molly O’Keefe’s WEDDING AT THE RIVERVIEW INN and ONE LAST CHANCE are really good explorations of exes working together in one of the ex’s restaurants/bars. O’Keefe brings the angst, but her plots aren’t quite as retro as the older Harlequin/M&B line.

  2. Amy says:

    Don’t know the book but was curious what a pink squirrel drink was: 3/4 ounce creme de noyaux.
    3/4 ounce white creme de cacao.
    1 1/2 ounces heavy cream. Sounds really sweet!

  3. Jill Q. says:

    Pink squirrels always make me think of my Aunt Nancy. She loved her cigarettes, purple clothes (all the purple! all the time!), schnauzer dogs, really bizarre “fancy” coffee flavors (think like cherry cordial or raspberry mint mocha), and frou frou drinks like grasshoppers and pink squirrels. She was a very funny, sweet person who has been gone a long time now, but it was nice to think about her and smile today.

  4. Claire says:

    Looks like it might be Stormy Reunion by Sandra K. Rhoades?

  5. LongTimeListener says:

    Speaking of groveling, could we get some recs on books with a good grovel?

  6. Katie says:

    Not the book you are looking for, but this is also the opening to Jane the Virgin 🙂

  7. LJO says:

    Following!!

  8. Kristi says:

    For Jill Q.

    My Great Aunt Francis was the pink squirrel/grasshopper lover in our family. Brings back crazy memories! She had an all white, frosted Christmas tree that sat on top of her tv for the holidays…and tons of tinsel and wore White Shoulders perfume.

  9. Deborah says:

    @LongTimeListener – I have a feeling that what constitutes a “good” grovel is in the eyes of the beholder, and that no matter the definition, there are too few good grovels in romancelandia.

    For me, a good grovel is achieved through extended effort on the part of the hero (sexist? yes — I have zero interest in seeing a heroine grovel. We are not far enough removed from, well, all of western history for that) while the heroine clings to her grudge like a toddler with a woobie. A couple of good examples for me would be THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE by Cate C. Wells and THE UNWANTED WIFE by Natasha Anders.

    (And I really want to open a can of worms about how I feel uncomfortable even talking about this on SBTB, where “he done her wrong” books are greeted with kneejerk sneers and dogpiling. Like only a dumb bitch would still be enjoying something so retro.)

  10. Amanda says:

    @Deborah: I will have a sip of that “dumb bitch” juice! If it makes you feel any better, I too experience hesitation in romance communities about voicing the sorts of tropes I like.

  11. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    @Deborah: here’s another Bitch who loves that stuff! And I’m happily married and have never been the type of woman who wanted that sort of emotional dynamic in real life, but I love-love-love books with angsty breakups and heroes (and, occasionally, heroines) who realize they’ve fucked up and need to make it right. You know how much I loved THE TYRANT ALPHA, but I also love THE UNWANTED WIFE: it’s one of my all-time favorite rereads for the baffled heroine and clueless-until-he-realizes-his-mistake hero. N fact, THE UNWANTED WIFE is the ne plus ultra of one of my favorite fake relationship sub-tropes: a fake relationship where only one MC knows it’s fake. Bring me all the angst & grovels!!

  12. a traveller says:

    @Claire – YES! That was the one! Thank you for helping me remember the name =)

  13. a traveller says:

    @Katie – haha, yes, I do see the similarities to Jane the Virgin now that I think about it

  14. FashionablyEvil says:

    @Deborah—hahhaha and as if to prove your point, I felt like THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE didn’t have enough/good enough grovel.

  15. Courtney M says:

    @Deborah @Amanda @DiscoDollyDeb I think in book reviews of romances (and romance communities generally) people often have a hard time of divorcing “this set-up or trope is just Not For Me” versus “this book is just Not Great” when they are discussing it. I think a lot of it boils down to some portion of people assuming that if you enjoy the plot, you are somehow endorsing/approving it.

    For example, dark romance seems to epitomize this: I was recently listening to the Dark Romance ep. on the Fated Mates podcast about why dark romance works for some readers, and also the trepidation people have in admitting that they like it due to the content. Wanting to read about dub-con or non-con definitely does not mean you approve of it in real life. Dark romance is definitely not my jam, but I see how it works for some people.

    What works for you versus what doesn’t is a weird thing! I’m not a huge fan of the grovel in contemporaries, but I love me a good estranged spouses reunite in historicals. Or a rejected mate (I did love THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE). Situations where the heroine isn’t forced to forgive the hero, but the barrier to her saying “eff this I’m out, see you never” is much higher.

    And “how much groveling is enough” – or even what counts as groveling – is going to vary from person to person. I like it where the grovel is more of a show rather than tell: for example, one of my favorites in the reunited historical spouses oeuvre is A DUCHESS IN NAME ONLY. And one of the frequent complaints about that book on Goodreads is not enough groveling, but for me it was enough because part of the grovel was the husband literally just being there for the heroine, rather than any big grovel monologues. Whereas someone else might be looking forward to the hero throwing himself on his sword.

    (and then there’s books like THE UGLY DUCHESS where the “grovel” is mostly the hero seducing his way back into the heroine’s good graces…which on the one hand, totally needs more grovel, but on the other hand, works really well in context and is super sexy, so I’ll allow it).

  16. LongTimeListener says:

    Wow, @Deborah @Amanda @DiscoDollyDeb @FashionablyEvil @Courtney M I didn’t realize this would be such a topic, but I have to say one of my favorite tropes in real life is a completely reasonable disagreements and respectful responses, so thanks for proving to me that Godwin’s Law isn’t always true.

    I totally see your points about it being so individualized. For the most part, I’m with @Deborah that I prefer it to be the hero who grovels, but I’ve also found myself loving marriage/relationship in trouble books like YOU DESERVE EACH OTHER by Sarah Hogle where there are things to forgive on both sides (any recs for this also welcome!) I will say I get very frustrated with books like ALL YOUR PERFECTS by Colleen Hoover (that I otherwise liked!) which have couples trying to work things out but almost as an aside dismiss the notion of couple’s therapy as something that didn’t or wouldn’t work for them after trying zero sessions or one therapist. Sometimes the best way to facilitate a grovel is through therapy! (Yikes, tangent—sorry! I just don’t think therapy is celebrated enough.)

    I also agree with @Courney M that I don’t need grand gestures so much as just being supportive—one of the reasons I asked in this forum was because I read the tiktok recommended TWISTED LOVE as people said it had top tier grovel but I ended up finding his over the top public gesture a bit cringe worthy. But then again, my love language is definitely words of affirmation so that’s very much a personal preference.

  17. Courtney M says:

    @LongTimeListener for things to forgive on both sides and pro-therapy vibes, I might recommend THE PEOPLE YOU MEET ON VACATION, because (spoiler) after the bleak moment where both of them make mistakes, they BOTH go off to therapy and only after working on themselves do they get back together. However, it is a friends to lovers where their friendship is on the rocks at the beginning of the book, rather than a traditional relationship in trouble book.

  18. Vasha says:

    Recs for good grovel… personally I like Courtney Milan’s “Unlocked” (forner bully’s return) which involves the hero’s comment that the only way to get the heroine to trust him is to BE trustworthy forever. He does that and it takes a long time.

  19. Kris Bock says:

    This site is definitely an exception to the “don’t read the comments” rule. I’m always glad when I click through to see if there are any comments, and sometimes you get a fascinating, deep discussion such as this one!

  20. SB Sarah says:

    I’ve said many times that I don’t take myself seriously, and I don’t take a lot of things around me seriously, but the comment section and community here (and the safety thereof) is something I pay close attention to. Y’all are thoughtful, caring people and I want you to be able to speak to each other safely and easily!

  21. Meg says:

    Not adding ANYTHING to the topic, but I do want to throw out there an observation. I often sign up for the “Subscribe without commenting” option to see where the conversation ends up going or to find out what the searched for book turns out to be. Going to the site and reading the comments in order provides a much more satisfactory and thought-provoking experience than just reading the comments on my phone as they come in. I’m no doubt showing my age here, but you guys are the best, and your thoughtful observations deserve my full attention.

  22. Quidnunc says:

    I just looked at The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate (free on KU). How have I n3ver seen this book? It checks so many boxes for me.

  23. wingednike says:

    I liked Sarah Morgan’s Harlequin’s for a good hero grovel. I haven’t read much of her new stuff but I remember enjoying her older books.

  24. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    @Quidnunc: I “discovered” Cate C. Wells late last year when the Fated Mates podcast chose her RUN POSY RUN as one of their favorite books of 2021. Although I enjoyed RUN POSY RUN and thought it was interesting in that the hero isn’t very “romantic” (and is quite selfish in bed), I didn’t find it “Best of the Year” material. But then I read THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE and struck gold—that book definitely did make my Best of 2021 list! Since then, I’ve read a number of Wells’s books and find that she excels at presenting socially-unequal MCs and heroes who want to be better for the women they love but often lack the emotional bandwidth to do so without blunders. After TYRANT ALPHA, my favorite book by Wells is HITTING THE WALL, an incredibly nuanced story of a man who discovers (seven years after the fact) that, unbeknownst to him, his wealthy family ran the teenage girl he had impregnated out of town. Now he has to face what his family—and his own cluelessness—have caused. So, so good!

  25. McKenzie K. says:

    The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun is one of my favorite examples of therapy in romance working to save a relationship! The book is delightful and I liked it a lot. I will also echo commenters above who like Cate C. Wells. Therapy on the page is great, even for “darker” heroes!!

  26. Amelia says:

    @Deborah @Amanda @DiscoDollyDeb @FashionablyEvil @Courtney M @LongTimeListener I LOVE this taxonomy of the grovel developing here.
    You’re so right that it means different things to different readers! For me I realized it actually has nothing to do with the grovel or the groveler. I’m reading for the part where the heroine tells the hero to ‘fuck off’. The scene that opened my eyes is in a a Victoria Dahl book where the hero is doing a grovel and thinks ‘of course she’ll forgive me’ and the heroine literally says, “who the fuck do you think I am?”- SO GOOD

    There’s a more recent scene in My Halloween Heartbreak(that could have been 5 pages longer imo) where the hero is doing usual romance hero bullshit and the heroine is like, “oh right, you’re really selfish”

    And it has to be with her words, I can not stand the paragraphs of searing internal monologue that never make it to the dialogue, the hero just knows from a “hurt look in her eyes” or whatever. I want him eviscerated out loud. Anyway… Is there a term for this part of the grovel equation? I’m always looking for more recs with this trope.

  27. Vasha says:

    @DDD: Thanks for the tip on Hitting the Wall! The sample’s such a grabber that, although I wouldn’t normally buy something that’s an Amazon exclusive, I need to make an exception. I need to read more of Shay’s narration, with its desperation, determination, directness, and keen observation.

  28. @LongTimeListener says:

    @Courtney M — I *adored* PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION! Emily Henry is such an insta-buy for me. I notice a lot of people are listing historicals, which I’ve just started getting into—I tend to like stuff set in the 1900s, but I think I’m arbitrarily picking that era because I’m more familiar with it.

    @Amelia — OMG, “taxonomy of the grovel” officially salvaged my day. As for the term for your fave part, maybe “the dismissal”? Or the Olivia Pope-inspired “if you want me, earn me”?

    I think the length of the grovel is an interesting dividing line for some people. Like

  29. LongTimeListener says:

    @Courtney M — I *adored* PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION! Emily Henry is such an insta-buy for me. I notice a lot of people are listing historicals, which I’ve just started getting into—I tend to like stuff set in the 1900s, but I think I’m arbitrarily picking that era because I’m more familiar with it.

    @Amelia — OMG, “taxonomy of the grovel” officially salvaged my day. As for the term for your fave part, maybe “the dismissal”? Or the Olivia Pope-inspired “if you want me, earn me”?

    I think the length of the grovel is an interesting dividing line for some people—I definitely prefer it to last more than a few pages. But do you think it can go on *too* long? Like when does it start to feel like he either needs to leave her alone because he’s tried too many times and she’s still not having it?
    I also find it interesting when books are dual narration, so you can kind of hear their thought process of when they realize they fucked up.

  30. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    @LongTimeListener: Do you think the grovel can go on for too long? Yes. I don’t mind if the grovel is in stages, but you have to be able to see the other MC gradually thawing/changing her mind or it does become creepy rather than romantic that the hero keeps trying to show that he knows he messed up. There’s also the question of how long the heroine is going to take to either forgive the hero or tell him to move on. In one of my all-time favorite romances, Kati Wilde’s GOING NOWHERE FAST (which, incidentally, has one of the most gutting and heartbreaking break-up scenes ever), the heroine’s best friend (the hero’s sister) essentially tells the heroine, my brother loves you but eventually he’s going to give up and move on, so if you love him and want to be with him, you need to let him know. Kind of like seeing the other side of the grovel.

  31. Deborah says:

    @Amanda & @DDD – thank you for the backup. I still feel self-protective about discussing “unhealthy” romance here. I know at SBTB I am in the company of insightful, opinionated, mostly liberal-to-progressive* vocalizing readers who are capable of treating romance as both entertainment and a cultural artifact worthy of being examined. It’s just that I also see a tendency to be superior or judgey toward the retro tropes in a way that makes this space unwelcoming. The line between “I don’t like this/this doesn’t work for me” and “this shouldn’t exist because it’s disempowering to women” isn’t that fine, but (from my perspective) it gets crossed a lot. (Some readers are brave and would charge in to fight that battle. It just shuts me down.)

    * Ironically and uncomfortably: on Goodreads, where I can find a different set of smart women willing to dissect these tropes from a position of appreciation, I am more likely to encounter conservative perspectives I don’t align with. And I don’t miss the significance of that, but I also hear enough feminist voices there to know that liking the retro thing is not endorsing the retro thing (thanks @Courtney M) and is miles away from being the retro thing.

    Back to the taxonomy of the grovel:

    @Amelia – I’m not certain from your comment if the heroines in the books you cite are slapping down their “heroes” or slapping down worthless exes and moving on to better lives. If it’s the heroes, there’s a subset of Kristen Ashley books I read just for the smackdown scenes. There’s something glorious about a heroine releasing her righteous anger about wrongs done to herself. (Sadly, I find the grovels in KA’s books completely inadequate, so I need to compartmentalize.)

    @DDD (well, not so much @, but I’m referencing your last comment) – I hate when a grovel or reconciliation is moved along by anyone — a pimping friend, the hero, or the heroine herself — suggesting that the heroine better get busy forgiving or the hero is going to move on. As far as I’m concerned, that’s emotional blackmail and coercion, and is the opposite of what a good grovel should achieve. For me, the first rule of a good grovel is that it acknowledges a heroine is entitled to her feelings.

  32. Linda Wu says:

    I was so insipred by this comment thread yesterday, I went and read THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE _and_ THE UNWANTED WIFE instead of doing any productive work, and I had a _wonderful_ time. So thank you all.

    THE TYRANT ALPHA had very snappy writing, and some satisfying (to me anyways) pining and grovel. And I agree with other commenters here: I’m here for the male pining and grovel, not so much the female version, although now that I think about it, it’s not so much the gender for me… it’s the power differential. I need the MC with the greater social status and/or physical power to pine for and grovel to the MC with the lower status and power. As a way to even things out, I guess.

    THE UNWANTED WIFE also had some glorious suffering for the emotionally unavailable hero (who definitely held more of the power in the relationship, at least at the beginning). Some spoilers and trigger warning below (I hope I did the tagging correctly):

    However, as a recently pregnant person with a small child… I found the pregnancy and new born details to be… UMM…

    I would also put a TRIGGER warning for a scene of amniocentosis (which I think is medically unnecessary given she is only 26-ish, but maybe its different South African medical protocols) complete with description of the needle going in. I recently had a similar procedure and had to put the book away and cry for a few minutes.

    The breastfeeding and newborn scenes also made me go… UMM… At one point, she wakes up in the middle of the night to the baby fussing, and he was already there picking up the baby, which is GREAT! Except then she goes to the nursery and they rock the baby back asleep together?!? I was screaming “WHAT, FEED THE INFANT! WHY ARE YOU NOT FEEDING THE INFANT???” in my head the whole time.

    So anyway, depending on how familiar you are with pregnancy and newborns, YMMV. I am both those things and I found these details mildly distracting, but still enjoyed the book immensely.

  33. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    @Deborah: I agree, no one should feel coerced into forgiveness, but the exchange in GOING NOWHERE FAST wasn’t done in a coercive way, the sister was just stating the facts that, knowing her brother the way she did, he would eventually move on if it appeared the heroine no longer had feelings for him. I was trying to connect that scene to the question of whether a grovel can go on too long before it either becomes creepy or the hero accepts he blew his chance and needs to move on.

    @Linda Wu: I’m glad you enjoyed TYRANT ALPHA and THE UNWANTED WIFE. I had totally forgotten the amniocentesis details in TUW (although I’ve had several myself). When I reread the book, I usually focus on everything from the start of the story up to the MCs’ reconciliation, so I generally don’t read the scenes after that much.

  34. Amelia says:

    @Deborah – YESSS!! give me all the scenes with “a heroine releasing her righteous anger about wrongs done to herself.”
    *I definitely prefer the smackdown to be on the hero.

    Re: “pimping friend”
    You hit on my most controversial romance opinion: “strong female friendship” in romance is actually terrible. The obligatory scene where the heroine has a heart to heart with her 2 best friends, Sequel Bait and Exposition Device so that they can tell her some version of “girl, go back to the shitty dude who made you sad” is INFURIATING.

    I HATE IT so much because I take friendship so seriously in real life and in no fucking world can I imagine an actual non-trashcan friend EVER telling anyone that they’re wrong for getting out of a relationship. Nobody ever knows what’s going on inside someone else’s relationship unless it is a work of fiction and we are the readers. The person on the inside is the subject matter expert, these romance novel friends need to back off. This feels like my most unpopular romance opinion up there next to my love of “hero and heroine are cheaters”— I know, I know, drag me…. But Nia Forrester got me hooked

    *I know the expansion of female friendship on the page is considered a hallmark of the feminist evolution of romance from the old-school books where the heroines are 17 year olds with no friends or community and the heroes have all the sequel-bait brothers but it doesn’t read as the win it’s touted to be.

  35. Courtney M says:

    @Amelia I think having “strong female friends” in romance novels is one of those things that when it’s done correctly you don’t necessarily notice it, but when it’s done wrong it can be nails on a chalkboard bad. I don’t think that the answer is “female friendships in romances are bad” but rather, authors need to write better female friends.

    Writing secondary characters is difficult. So, in the hands of a mediocre/inexperienced/rushed author the friend(s) aren’t really fleshed out ahead of time, which means they can be conveniently borrowed for whatever plot points they are needed for. But while it’s convenient for the author to borrow the nearest BFF to prod the heroine in the right plot direction, it feels like a deus ex machina because the friend is such a blank page (until we meet them in the sequel of course).

    I don’t think this is necessarily a problem unique to female friends – I think it can be a problem with any secondary character. But it can be especially glaring, because most readers have at least a couple female friends in their lives, so a poorly characterized friend easily falls into the uncanny valley. It doesn’t help that authors often feel they can tell rather than show the BFF character, i.e., declare a character a bestie and move on. But then the BFF (or BFF group) shows up so much in the book (because besties are always available! They always drop everything for their friends! So you can use them for all your emergency plot needs!) that they then become a major character. Buuut their only character trait is still only “supportive friend.”

    Personally, I don’t mind strong female friendships in romance novels (even if the friends do have a tendency to turn into plot marionettes) UNLESS the author can’t write natural-sounding dialogue between women. No idea why there’s such a large chunk of authors who can write perfectly natural dialogue between any other characters, but if you have female friends talking they have to talk like they’re in Clueless. But maybe because it’s a personal pet peeve I notice it more.

  36. Vasha says:

    I am loving this discussion. And the respectful disagreement. Thanks, Courtney M, for “people often have a hard time of divorcing ‘this set-up or trope is just Not For Me’ versus ‘this book is just Not Great’ when they are discussing it.” That’s humbling because I needed to hear it. In the past I’ve expressed a lot of negativity about books with dominating/alpha men, even when they aren’t assholes at all, and I just realized that I shouldn’t be judging those books or their readers because what I need is a personalized trigger warning: I can’t take any sort of language that suggests a man possessing or mastering a woman. Today in a book that’s actually really great I read “…he’s taking my mouth, plunging his tongue past my lips, owning me…” and felt sick to my stomach. I put the book down, got over my queasiness, and went back to enjoying the story. Now, my reaction might have something to do with “all of western history” as Deborah put it, or not, I don’t know, but in any case it’s just me, not some moral absolute, and I have to get better at listening to people who love this kind of thing. Thank you all.

  37. Lauren says:

    Absolutely loving reading all the comments (and I hope I’m not too late to chuck in my 2c) because I LOVE a good grovel if it’s private (no peer pressure to take them back) and is accompanied by action – doesn’t have to be a parade or a proposal (and probably shouldn’t be) nor something selfish or ‘payment’ for reconciliation but something that shows they care, like fixing a squeaky gate that the other complained about or buying a certain hard to obtain item or leaving an event to search for a missing lobster.

    Oddly enough, what I’m quite tired of is the third act Mope ™ where they’ve broken up and the heroine (usually) is back at her ‘normal’ life except it’s sadder now she’s single then her friends confront her like Charlie to Bella in New Moon. I know it’s important to show it was twu wuv, but the breakups are often so contrived, that part of the book feels formulaic and it slows everything down until the other person removes head from ass and comes to grovel.

    Please don’t get me started on books that have one party wronging the other and the narrative equates it to a minor infractions so it makes them equal. She caught you kissing another girl – that not okay just because she had (understandable) reservations about the secret baby having a sleepover at your house and you demanding custody.

    Also I got the Tyrant’s Rejected Mate when it was free on Amazon despite telling myself I was over shifters and fated mates, so now I’m keen to dive into that!

  38. Deborah says:

    @Lauren – “leaving an event to search for a missing lobster” — this sounds like a super-specific reference, but I am unfamiliar with the source (and Googling is only leading me to some sad stories about lobster fishermen). If it’s a thing, what’s it from?

    I hope you enjoy THE TYRANT ALPHA. The wolves are charming!

  39. Kareni says:

    @Deborah, as I recall the heroine in When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare had pet lobsters, but I can’t remember if they escaped.

  40. Vasha says:

    Here’s a coincidence between what is turning into a Cate C. Wells appreciation thread and Amelia’s and Courtney M’s comment about the “friends intervene in breakup” scene. ‘Cause I’m reading Wells’s Heavy, the only one of her Steel Bones Motorcycle Club series I’ve read; and she just did that exact scene–hero completely misunderstands heroine and breaks up with her, he mopes for weeks, his fellow club members corner him en masse, clue him in on what he missed, and tell him to go reconcile. It isn’t rote though, and an important reason is that those friends have already appeared quite a lot in this novel, and not as devices for advancing the main characters’ relationship (nor as reminders that they starred in previous volumes, though I gather they did) — instead, they’ve been arguing, partying, working together, reminiscing, teasing one another… and they’ve been talking about everyone’s romantic relationships, too, both to and about their friends–constant keeping tabs, sometimes analyzing or criticizing, but with a bedrock of support. So this come-to-Jesus talk to the hero doesn’t come out of nowhere.

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