50 pages • 1 hour read
Sarah AdamsThe Cheat Sheet
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.
Themes
Romance as a Threat to Friendship
The core conflict of the novel is the miscommunication between Bree and Nathan about their feelings for one another. Despite the fact that Bree and Nathan are in love with each other, each of them thinks the other sees them in solely a platonic light. These secret feelings exist in the form of an underlying tension beneath the surface of their seemingly cozy friendship. Since fear of ruining the friendship prevents them from being honest about their feelings, each is left to interpret the other’s behavior in the absence of real information. These interpretations are consistently wrong. Within the first chapter, Bree thinks, “He plucks a maple glazed out of the box and leans down to give me a quick peck on the cheek like he always does. Completely platonic. Brotherly” (12). Even when Nathan gives her physical affection, she reads it as platonic. When he doesn’t give her physical affection, in contrast, she believes that also belies the platonic nature of their relationship. She thinks, “A man who is head over heels for a woman doesn’t keep his hands to himself on movie night for six years straight. And Nathan and I always keep our hands to ourselves” (15). However, Nathan keeps his hands to himself because he does not want to ruin his friendship with Bree by making her uncomfortable.
Bree reads Nathan’s friendly demeanor toward her as a sign of his lack of romantic feelings; however, his lack of flirtation actually stems from the depth of his feelings. He thinks,
Some might be tempted to think my full-time job is pro athlete. Wrong. It’s forcing myself to behave inside this gray area with Bree where I’m wild about her on the inside and nothing but a platonic guy-friend on the outside. It’s a cruel form of torture. It’s staring at the sun and not blinking even though it burns like hell (25).
Nathan acts like just a friend to Bree because he thinks that is what she wants, and his description of what that behavior feels like is visceral and evocative, highlighting exactly how painful burying his feelings is.
Bree is worried about her feelings for Nathan as the fake-dating scenario plays out. The magazine gala is a romantic evening that does not seem to bother Nathan, yet Bree is put off by the seriousness of everything. She thinks, “[Nathan] might think it’s nothing because he doesn’t have feelings for me, but I will 100 percent get things mixed up in my head, and it will crush me when he never wants to be more than friends” (47). He treats her like a real girlfriend in public and at home, filling her apartment with flowers and sending her 15 designer dresses to choose from. Bree reads this as Nathan fulfilling his role as her pretend boyfriend, not as the genuine romantic gestures that Nathan intends them to be. Jamal states the problem clearly while encouraging Nathan to pursue Bree more seriously: “Y’all are stuck in a vortex of fear and miscommunication. Someone has to break through it first” (76). Eventually, in a moment that intersects with the theme of The Power of Vulnerability in Achieving Emotional Fulfillment, Bree confesses her feelings to Nathan, and he immediately reciprocates. All that was needed was for one person to take a risk, opening themselves up to the possibility of rejection. Their romantic relationship moves toward marriage quickly and successfully because the strength of their friendship serves as a foundation. They know and love each other so well because they knew and loved each other first as friends.
The Cost of Fame
Nathan is highly conscious of the upsides and downsides of his celebrity status. He is willing to bear the cost of fame in his own life, but he is very concerned about how his fame could impact Bree, especially when they are in public together. At Jamal’s party, he thinks, “But Bree didn’t ‘sign up’ for this and I know she doesn’t want anything to do with the spotlight, so I’m very protective of her in public situations. I’ll be her bodyguard any day” (69). He feels obligated to keep Bree from experiencing any negative side effects of his fame, especially when she’s drunk and vulnerable. Unfortunately, the effects of Nathan’s fame do inadvertently harm Bree after her video leaks.
Nathan is tough on himself because of his fame. He drives himself to Levi’s birthday party after practicing for the playoff game all day, despite the fact that he is exhausted. He thinks, “Sometimes when I’m tired and I think it would be great to take a nap, I feel the need to push myself harder” (248). This relentless drive is fueled by a deep-seated belief that he is unworthy of his success. He pushes himself past his body and mind’s barriers in hopes that if he continues to work harder than anyone else, he can feel like he deserves the success that he has achieved. His integrity demands that he work hard to “deserve” his fame and affluence, even if those in his life, like Bree, think that he is enough with or without football.
Bree understands Nathan’s fame and what it requires. She is never upset with him for his busy, regimented schedule, nor for the attention he attracts. She also encourages him to take breaks and practice self-care, like when she encourages him to refuse to attend an event at his mother’s country club or when she tries to convince him to skip Levi’s birthday party to rest. She is initially annoyed when Jamal’s birthday party takes place at a more upscale restaurant than she expected, but she quickly realizes that this is a necessity:
The Sharks are officially in the playoffs, and Nathan and Jamal’s celebrity status has skyrocketed. They have to be careful where they go right now, and I’m assuming most burger places wouldn’t have a VIP lounge to give them privacy (60).
She has empathy for the situation that Nathan and Jamal are in as famous NFL players and does not place any blame on Nathan when the bathroom video leaks, realizing that this kind of intrusive press attention is something they have to deal with on a daily basis.
The part of Nathan’s fame that does make Bree uncomfortable is the NFL “WAG” (wives and girlfriends) experience. Before the magazine gala, as things with Nathan heat up, she thinks,
This is really, really bad. Everything I’ve ever avoided with Nathan is all happening in one rushing avalanche. Fancy public date. Big gestures. My own entourage. High-priced gifts. It’s too much, and it’s all going to end just as quickly for me as it does for all of his other girlfriends. Except unlike those other women, I won’t miss all of this—I’ll miss him (170).
Here, Bree starts to view herself as Nathan’s girlfriend but fears the heartbreak she’ll experience when the artificial relationship inevitably ends. The public performance of romance is uniquely threatening to her since it threatens to foreclose the possibility of a real, private relationship. The more public and real the relationship becomes, the larger a wedge that Bree thinks it will drive into her friendship with Nathan and the harder it will be to recover their friendship—and the chance that it may develop into something more—afterward. When their relationship does become real, the public perception no longer matters, and Bree can shake off her fears and concerns about Nathan leaving her behind.
The Power of Vulnerability
The novel’s central conflict, of hidden romantic desire, could be easily resolved with mutual honesty, but for much of the narrative, both Bree and Nathan are unwilling to accept the vulnerability that such honesty would require. When Bree finally confesses her feelings to Nathan, he immediately reciprocates them. Her confession makes her vulnerable, as it invites the risk of rejection, but without that vulnerability, they would both remain romantically unfulfilled forever.
However, Nathan also keeps his mental health struggles from Bree. During a grueling game, he realizes that years of stoically enduring the pressures of his career have had a cumulative effect: “I used to feel like I could balance it all so well. Lately…there’s just this feeling I can’t describe that follows me everywhere I go. It’s like everything is swirling around me at all times. There’s no way to make it settle down” (90). The “feeling” Nathan describes is anxiety, which will culminate in a panic attack at Levi’s birthday party. He is not willing to be vulnerable with Bree about how anxious and overwhelmed he is because his privileged life makes him feel unworthy of such feelings.
Even before their love confessions, there are small moments in which Nathan and Bree manage to be vulnerable with each other. On the couch after their run to the beach, they kiss again. Bree thinks, “We are not in public. […] This kiss isn’t for anyone but me and him. […] His lips are warm, soft, vulnerable caresses” (237). This private kiss, the first one between them that isn’t performed for the benefit of an audience, is uniquely “vulnerable.” Neither has admitted to being in love, but the kiss in private shifts things. It cannot hide behind the guise of publicity of their fake relationship. They are kissing because they want to. Bree uses the word “vulnerable” again when she describes how Nathan looks after taking out his box of mementos to show her: “His fist is pressed to his mouth, and his eyes are crinkled. Poor thing is really going through the vulnerability wringer tonight” (263). He was vulnerable enough to tell her about his mental health struggles, to cry in her arms, and then to be honest about the length and depth of his romantic feelings for her. In one night, he manages to be as vulnerable as he possibly can, in order to let Bree fully into his heart and mind. Bree thinks, “Tonight has peeled back everything I thought I knew about Nathan, and now I see a man who’s just as scared as me. I love him more” (261). In being afraid together, and in sharing that they both thought their friendship was at risk and therefore kept their feelings secret, their love grows deeper, establishing the basis for a lasting and successful romantic partnership.
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