48 pages • 1 hour read
Casey McQuistonThe Pairing (The Proposition, #3)
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 17-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 17 Summary: “Rome Pairs Well With: Cardinale on the Rocks, Half-melted Gelato”
In the morning, Theo suggests that she and Kit go for a bike ride to a nearby castle. Their pastoral adventure goes awry, and the tour bus leaves for Rome without them because Theo checked their names off on the roll call before they left. The villa’s owner gives them a ride to Rome. During the drive, Theo and Kit argue, which dredges up their fight on the plane. Kit intended to surprise Theo with his plan for them to move to France after they spent a few days in Paris. However, Theo found his acceptance letter to École Desjardins and the papers to the pied-à-terre in his backpack during the flight. Kit thought that she would be glad to leave behind an existence she was unhappy in, but Theo was furious that Kit planned a whole life for them without talking to her. In the present, Kit apologizes and explains that not including her in his plans is “the greatest regret of [his] life” (303). A peaceful silence settles over Theo and Kit, and she takes his hand.
Theo and Kit reunite with Fabrizio and the group in Rome in time for a vespa tour. They spend the afternoon sightseeing and dine at a family-owned pasta restaurant. At Theo’s suggestion, Kit stays in Theo’s hotel room, and they alter the terms of their arrangement so that anything besides kissing and penetration is permitted. They have sex and fall asleep together. In the middle of the night, a text from Maxine makes Kit realize that the tour will end in four days, and he worries that he might have to adjust to life without Theo all over again. He’s touched when Theo mumbles that she wanted them to wake up together at the villa and when he realizes that she packed the bottle of whiskey he gave her on their first anniversary.
The next morning, the tour group visits the Galleria Borghese. As Kit wanders through the gallery, he considers the possibility that Theo loves him, resolves to do whatever she asks of him if that is the case, and realizes that he isn’t happy in Paris. At dinner that night, Theo explains that what she wants most in life is peace and that she thinks she might find it if she gives all of her focus and energy to one pursuit in spite of her fear of failure. Kit is glad she’s made this realization and tells her, “[W]hatever you choose, you don’t have to do it alone” (324). Soon afterward, he begins to wonder if his new interest in moving back to California with Theo is just another example of his tendency to fixate on a fantasy and ignore the consequences for the people he cares about. Theo suggests that they go to their room, but Kit worries that he’ll confess his feelings for her if they’re alone together. He brings up their competition, which stands at five to three with Theo in the lead.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Naples Pairs Well With: Generous Servings of Limoncello, Cannoli”
The tour’s next stop is Naples, and Fabrizio is even more flirtatious and joyous than usual in his hometown. While the tour group enjoys a feast at the restaurant Fabrizio’s family owns, Kit receives a call from Paloma. One of her neighbors wants to sell her pastry shop, and Paloma thinks this would be the perfect opportunity for Kit. Although this sounds like a dream come true to him, he tells Paloma that he’s invested too much time and effort in his job in Paris to leave it.
Fabrizio invites Theo and Kit to his apartment, and they think that he wants to sleep with one or both of them. They’re surprised to meet Fabrizio’s wife, Valentina, who thinks that they are “star-crossed lovers who fell back in love on Fabrizio’s tour” (341). Theo and Kit explain that they’re just friends, and Fabrizio tells them that he invited them to his home because he hopes that they can stay in touch after the tour. When Theo is out of earshot, Fabrizio encourages Kit to tell Theo that he’s in love with her because she deserves to know. He shares the story of how Valentina nearly married someone else because Fabrizio thought the other man would make her happier than he could. On the way back to the hostel, Theo and Kit call off their competition. He resolves to tell her that he loves her in Palermo.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Palermo (Day One) Pairs Well With: Bitter Amaro, Sfinci di San Giuseppe”
Kit nearly tells Theo he loves her several times, but something interrupts him each time. She purchases him a saffron panna cotta because it was his favorite dessert that he’s tried in Sicily. To their mutual astonishment, a band at a dive bar plays their song, Phil Collins’ “Can’t Stop Loving You.” Theo asks Kit to kiss her so she can remember “how it feels to be in love with [him]” (360), and he tells her that he never stopped loving her. They kiss passionately and return to the hostel, where they have sex with none of the previous rules. Kit feels at home and more in love with Theo than ever before.
Chapter 20 Summary: “Palermo (Day Two) Pairs Well With: Granita and Brioche, Fourteen-year Whiskey”
Later that night, Theo touches the tattoo on Kit’s shoulder, which says, “surpasses all jewels” (376). The quotation is a description of love from the story of Beren and Lúthien in Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. It’s Kit’s favorite book, and Theo read it to him to soothe him to sleep after his mother died. Although Theo and Kit love one another, they agree that their lives are too different for them to be together.
On the final day of the tour, Theo and Kit split a coffee granita and learn that the entire tour group has been rooting for them to reconcile. Fabrizio is particularly ecstatic, and Theo and Kit decide to let everyone think they are together. In Favignana, Theo surprises Kit with a dinghy, and they sail around the island. They have tuna sandwiches for lunch and reminisce about their favorite meals, wines, and sights from the tour. Theo reveals that she realized she was still in love with Kit at Sagrada Familia, and Kit reveals that his frequent nosebleeds are triggered by feelings of love. They kiss, have sex, and swim in the sea.
During the final dinner of the tour, Fabrizio gives a heartfelt toast to thank everyone for joining him on this culinary adventure. Theo and Kit walk to a beach and share the bottle of whiskey. They discover that they both love Saint-Jean-de-Luz best of all the places they’ve visited. Theo observes, “All the others I felt like I was visiting, but Saint-Jean-de-Luz felt like a home, you know?” (386). Kit admits that he needs to look for a new job, one that feeds rather than stifles his curiosity. Theo says that she feels more aware of her own potential thanks to the past three weeks, that she’s ready to return home, and that she might accept Sloane’s offer to invest in her business. They decide to remain friends with benefits and promise to visit one another. When Kit prepares to throw the letter he wrote to Theo into the sea, she stops him and says that she would like to read it one day.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Paris (Again) Pairs Well With: Tarte Tatin aux Pêches, Espresso from the Second-Best Café in Bastille”
Kit returns to Paris and breaks things off with his sexual partners because it doesn’t seem fair to be involved with them when he loves someone else. He receives a phone call from his father, whom he hasn’t spoken to in months. Kit tells his father that he’s considering leaving Paris, and his father implies that he regrets taking Kit’s mother away from her beloved France. The next day, Kit discovers a note that his mother wrote to her brother, Thierry: “If I can give my whole heart to love without fearing the cost, I will regret nothing” (396).
Kit recalls that Theo has a layover in Paris. He knows that he has a slim chance of reaching her before her flight leaves for the United States, but he resolves to try. When he opens the door to his apartment, Theo is standing there. She read his letter on her flight from Palermo and realized that she would always regret not taking a chance on them. They profess that they want to spend the rest of their lives together and make love. In the morning, Kit realizes that Theo is missing the sommelier exam. She explains that she has a new goal, a combination bar and bakery where “every dish is designed to pair with a drink” (401). Her working title for the business is Field Day, and Kit thinks he knows the perfect location.
Epilogue Summary
The narrative returns to Theo’s perspective. The story moves ahead to the following winter in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, where Theo and Kit have converted the old pastry shop into Field Day. Theo and Kit are pleasantly surprised when Sloane arrives for the friends and family menu tasting. Their relatives, Fabrizio, Valentina, and Maxine will also be at the tasting, and gifts of food and wine pour in from other friends Theo and Kit made along the tour. Although starting a new life was frightening for Theo, she loves Kit and what they have built together.
Chapter 17-Epilogue Analysis
McQuiston gives Theo and Kit a happy ending that combines their long-held dreams with the new discoveries they gain on the tour. These final chapters contain several key moments that advance the theme of Second Chances in Love. For example, Kit helps their relationship move forward when he apologizes for “treating [Theo’s] life as a problem to be solved” (303), a mistake that led to their disastrous fight four years ago. The apology allows Theo to let go of her anger toward Kit, and it softens her self-judgment by reminding her that not even Kit is infallible. At the same time, the breakup has some positive effects. Theo observes, “I’ve grown into someone who’s better for you. And you’ve become someone who’s better for me” (398). This illustrates that the main characters’ relationship is stronger now than if they had never parted.
Field Day encapsulates the main characters’ growth and represents the culmination of the theme of second chances in love. Theo and Kit are more authentically themselves after their time apart just as Field Day is a more sophisticated restaurant concept than their original plans for Fairflower. Food and beverage pairings symbolize romantic relationships, and the restaurant specializes in pairings to reinforce its significance as an expression of the main characters’ love. Adding to the restaurant’s symbolic importance as the concretization of their happily ever after, the name Field Day combines Theo and Kit’s surnames. Bringing the novel full-circle, the menu draws inspiration from each stop along the tour with fare that is “French-focused, but with Spanish and Italian elements” (401). Theo and Kit have long dreamed of opening a restaurant together, and their new vision celebrates the experiences that gave them their second chance at love.
Theo and Kit’s attitudes toward The Pursuit of Pleasure shift as they mature and heal. By calling off the hookup competition in Chapter 18, Theo demonstrates that she has overcome the feelings of anger, jealousy, and insecurity that led her to use sex with other people as a diversion from her feelings toward Kit. Similarly, Kit breaks things off with his sexual partners because reuniting with Theo reminds him that some things matter more than physical pleasure: “It doesn’t feel fair to go on burying [my love] in other people, showing them all the flowers Theo has frescoed over my heart without telling them I’ve already put someone else’s statue in the fountain at its center” (392). At the end of the novel, Theo and Kit are wiser and more mature, but they still recognize pleasure as an important part of life. With Field Day, they draw from their decadent adventures on the tour to create pleasurable experiences for others.
In the novel’s final section, Theo takes valiant strides on her journey to self-acceptance. Her experiences on the tour bolster her confidence. This allows her to let go of other people’s expectations and measures of success, as seen when she decides not to retake the sommelier exam: “‘I think I know what I want my one thing to be,’ they say. ‘And I don’t know that I need to pass a test to do it’” (401). This choice shows that Theo is ready to move on from her past failures and give herself permission to take risks. The Epilogue affirms Theo’s growth and her place on The Journey Toward Self-Acceptance by describing how she tackles “logistical wrangling, so much paperwork, budgets and business plans and all the things that are hardest for [her]” so that she can move to France (405). Over the course of Theo’s self-acceptance journey, she grows from clinging to a familiar existence that no longer serves her to bravely constructing a new life for herself.
Allusions enhance the love story by referencing texts that parallel Theo and Kit’s feelings for one another. Kit’s shoulder tattoo comes from the story of Beren and Lúthien, two famous star-crossed lovers in Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. Because the phrase “surpasses all jewels” describes love (376), Kit’s tattoo reinforces his characterization as a romantic dreamer who cherishes his bond with Theo even when the odds seem to be against them. Another key allusion occurs in Chapter 19 when Theo and Kit confess their love for each other after hearing Phil Collins’s “Can’t Stop Loving You.” The song's speaker attempts to conceal his feelings as the person he loves prepares to leave for another city, not knowing if or when they’ll see each other again. The similarities to Theo and Kit’s current situation as well as their previous attachment to the song urge them to make their feelings known while there is still time, paving the way for the novel’s happy ending.
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By Casey McQuiston
