59 pages • 1 hour read
Lucy ScoreThings We Never Got Over
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary: “Backyard Urination and Dewey Decimal” (Naomi)
Naomi tries to settle into a routine and makes a list of things to do while she enjoys coffee on the cottage deck. Knox comes out to his deck next door and, to Naomi’s surprise, urinates. Naomi spends “a full ten seconds of open-mouthed ogling” (92), noting Knox’s comfort and confidence in his physicality.
Wanting to check her email, she takes Waylay to the public library. She meets the librarian, a saucy, anything-but-typical librarian named Sloane, who gets Naomi started on one of the library’s computers. When Naomi checks her email, she is stunned to find out that her ex-fiancé canceled their joint credit cards. She emails her parents, who are on a cruise, but only to tell them she is in Virginia, that she is okay, and that marrying Warner would never have worked out. She also sends an email to Stef, a close friend who planned the elaborate wedding, telling him about Waylay.
Chapter 10 Summary: “Haircuts and Pains in the Ass” (Knox)
Knox heads to work. He cannot stop thinking about Naomi. He arrives at the Whiskey Clipper, a barbershop that he owns along with Honky Tonk and several apartment complexes. He bought these properties after winning the state lottery two years earlier. He settles into his office and examines the framed family photos on the wall. He regrets that he and his brother drifted apart. “Just another example of how relationships don’t last forever” (105). He does a Google search on Naomi and finds articles about her engagement. He is stunned by her gorgeous photos but dismisses her for having anything to do with such a strait-laced man who obviously “ironed his pants” (110).
Chapter 11 Summary: “The Boss from Hell” (Naomi)
It is Naomi’s first night working at Honky Tonk, and she is determined to make the job work. The locals are rowdy, but Naomi works the tables with confidence. She tries not to think about her “grumpy, urinating neighbor” (113). Then, Knox walks in, and Naomi finds out he owns the bar. Knox is not happy that she is working there, but the bar needs the help. Sparks fly as the two adjust to their working relationship. Then one of the servers points Naomi to a rowdy table in the corner and tells her they are all hers.
Chapter 12 Summary: “A Ride Home” (Knox)
Knox can tell as he watches Naomi “strutting her high-class ass” (121) that she does not belong at Honky Tonk. “She was the kind of woman with expectations and long-term plans” (122). He figured that after he turned 40 he was through with relationships, but every time he sees Naomi his resolve wavers. When one of the drunken regulars grabs Naomi by the wrist, Knox heads to her defense.
Nash comes in and reassures Naomi he took care of the grand theft auto misunderstanding. He tells her that her car was found in pieces in a chop shop near Washington. He offers to stick around and give her a ride home. Knox assures his brother that he takes care of his employees, and he fantasizes about pinning Naomi against the wall and kissing her. At the end of the shift, however, Naomi quits. She only reconsiders after he assures her that he is not always an “asshole” and that she is not his type because he knows “a quick fuck” (132) wouldn’t satisfy her.
Chapter 13 Summary: “History Lesson” (Naomi)
Naomi and Waylay have been together for a week. Naomi decides to splurge with her tips and takes Liza J. and Waylay out for pizza. Over lunch, Liza J. tries to explain why her two “mule-headed” grandsons are so contentious. She tells Naomi the strained relationship began when Knox won the lottery. The $11 million changed everything, she says mysteriously. Knox settled into a comfortable lifestyle, working part-time in the businesses he bought. Liza J. hopes that Naomi may convince Knox to abandon bachelorhood. After lunch, Naomi and Waylay stop at Whiskey Clipper. Naomi watches Knox’s “dexterous hands” cutting hair and feels an “annoying pulse of desire” (144).
Chapter 14 Summary: “The Dinner Party” (Knox)
Sloane the librarian and her niece, Chloe, invite most of the town to a potluck picnic. Naomi and Waylay are there, and when Knox’s basset hound runs next door to join the picnic, Knox comes over as well. When he sees Naomi, he is unsettled by what is “simmering” behind her smoky, hazel eyes (155). But his brother is there pestering her, and Knox struggles to get her alone. When they are finally alone, the conversation moves to Waylay and Naomi’s worries over whether she will make friends in school. Knox assures her she and Naomi will never be alone. Naomi, feeling the wine, bristles and cautions him to mind his own business. She assures him that she does not need anyone else, her voice rising. At that moment, the CPS agent arrives for an informal meeting about Waylay’s guardianship, arranged as a surprise by Nash.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Knox Goes Shopping” (Naomi)
Two days later with school approaching, Naomi tells Waylay they are going to the mall for back-to-school clothes. Naomi worries about money and knows the only thing that makes sense is for her to sell her house back on Long Island, but that would mean saying goodbye to “that dream” (161). Still without a car, Naomi agrees to let Knox drive them to the mall, figuring he would wait in the truck while they shopped. To her surprise, he comes in with them and proves to be an enthusiastic and generous shopper. He buys Waylay’s clothes, much-needed underwear for Naomi, and, over her objections, a phone for her as well. Naomi, overwhelmed, notices how many women in the mall ogle Knox. When they shop for her panties, Naomi notices Knox’s erection and goes into “five-alarm arousal” (166) herself. On the way home from the long day of shopping, Knox cautions Naomi that a man from New York showed up in the café asking about her.
Chapter 16 Summary: “The Infamous Stef” (Naomi)
When they arrive at Naomi’s cottage, a man bearing a bottle of wine is waiting on her porch. It is Stefan Liao, or Stef, Naomi’s best friend, a wealthy entrepreneur and gay man. He flew in to make sure Naomi is okay after canceling the wedding he planned for her. Naomi introduces him to Knox and Waylay. Knox, uncertain of how to react, heads out. Naomi stops him, gently kisses him, and thanks him.
After Waylay falls asleep, Stef and Naomi talk about the wedding. Stef assures Naomi he never cared for Warner and that he only wished she let him help her plan her escape. He asks about her “grumpy next-door neighbor” (176) and is stunned when she assures him they are not sleeping together.
Chapters 9-16 Analysis
As Naomi adjusts to her new role as Waylay’s guardian and begins to appreciate the depth of her attraction to her attractive neighbor-turned-boss, the novel explores the nature of sexual attraction, the definition of friendship, and Naomi’s emerging responsibilities for Waylay.
These chapters center on three moments that come to define Naomi’s fascination with Knox, centered on his commanding physique. Because she is only a few days out of her engagement and is a runaway bride, Naomi cautions herself that any interest in the grumpy Knox would be a miscalculation and ultimately a “waste of her time” (155). Yet the pull is undeniable. First, there is her inappropriate-yet-unabashed curiosity over seeing Knox’s penis as he urinates off his deck. Her ogling convinces her that Knox is a “real man;” while this seems purely physical, it’s an important insight as the reader later learns that her fiancé was insecure in his masculinity. Warner physically abused Naomi to prove and assert his manhood; in Knox, Naomi sees someone who is secure in his physicality and unlikely to repeat this dynamic.
This emphasis on physical attraction continues throughout this chapter grouping. Later, Naomi is mesmerized by Knox’s hands as he washes hair, and in addition to being impressed by Knox’s generosity at the mall, she notices his erection with interest and notes other women taking in Knox’s “unfairly gorgeous” presence (165). With these observations, the novel’s sexual tension begins to build. In appraising Knox’s muscles, his penis, and his hands, Naomi begins to convince herself that her past need not define her present. The novel uses these scenes of budding attraction to suggest that love should be grounded in the sensual. Sex and attraction are integral to romance, but Score lays the groundwork for a more substantial connection in Knox’s generosity and down-to-earth nature. For now, the dynamic is physical attraction, but even as the sexual tension builds, the reader knows that that is bound to change.
Apart from anatomizing the heat of sexual attraction, these chapters reveal that Naomi is transitioning into quasi-parenthood. At the picnic, she frets over Waylay’s diet under her sister’s neglect. To Knox, she worries with typical parental concern about whether Waylay will make friends in school. She understands the necessity of making sure that Waylay is ready to go back to school and is willing to use money from her wedding to buy her new clothes. When Knox assures her that people are willing to help her adjust to her new role, she assures him she needs no help. That position will be tested over the next several months; at the end, when her neighbors rescue her, Naomi will come to understand the foolish and dangerous egotism of that remark. But for now, Naomi moves into her role as a parent with purpose. Even when she learns that her car has been found in pieces at a chop shop and comes to understand that caring for her sister’s daughter may be permanent, she understands that she cannot let Waylay feel abandoned or unloved.
Naomi begins to expand her circle of friends, introducing herself to neighbors and coworkers and beginning to be someone other than not-Tina, an important element in her journey to self-identity. These chapters introduce another important character: the flamboyant and ever-cheerful Stef. Stef helps Naomi recognize her need for others, and he helps her learn to trust her heart after being so casually demeaned and degraded by her fiancé. His last name means “open space,” and that is what he offers Naomi: a judgment-free environment. For example, although he planned her wedding, he does not judge her decision to run away and assures her it was the best option.
Stef will come to serve as Naomi’s mentor, dispensing counsel at critical moments as Naomi struggles to understand the implications of her emerging love for prickly Knox. In a novel where heterosexual relationships often degrade into abuse and disappointment, Stef’s sexuality places him outside of these dynamics. He counsels Naomi without an agenda since he does not want to date her or get her in bed. Unlike Knox’s obsession with Naomi’s body, Nash’s concern, or Warner’s need for a trophy wife, Stef cares only about the emotional well-being of his friend. In later chapters, his warnings to Knox reveal the depth of his concern. Stef stands up to Knox to defend Naomi and cautions him not to take advantage of her vulnerable state. Through Stef’s and Naomi’s relationship, the novel emphasizes the importance of friendship.
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By Lucy Score
