The Pairing (The Proposition, #3)

“I check the time: thirty-five minutes since Kit walked away. I’m too angry to cry, but I have about half an hour until I come completely, spectacularly unglued. I’ll email the tour company later to explain why we never made it, see if I can get a refund. Right now, I just want to go home.”

In the second chapter, the novel suddenly jumps ahead by four years, and the resulting sense of disorientation helps to convey the narrator’s shock. McQuiston increases the story’s suspense by waiting to reveal the details of the fight that led Kit to walk away from Theo. This passage sets the stage for the remainder of the novel because the main characters later go on the culinary tour they abandoned before it started and give their love another chance in the process.

“‘Are you saying you want to be friends?’ ‘I’m saying I didn’t fly across the world to feel weird and bad for three weeks. I came to drink champagne and eat cannelloni until I throw up. So, we could try…peacefully coexisting.’”

The conversation in which Theo and Kit resolve to try “peacefully coexisting” with one another advances the plot by helping the former lovers heal and become friends. These important steps eventually help them become a couple again, developing the theme of Second Chances in Love. In addition, Theo’s hyperbolic claim that she plans “to drink champagne and eat cannelloni until [she] throw[s] up” connects to the romantic comedy’s humor with The Pursuit of Pleasure.

“He had everyone he wanted. It was like a rite of passage in our year to have one glorious night with Kit and then be in love with him for a week.”

Kit’s reputation as the sex god of his pastry school fills Theo with jealousy and increases her determination to prove that she has moved on, paving the way for the main characters’ hookup competition. Ironically, Theo later learns that Maxine lied about Kit’s reputation in an attempt to make her best friend sound more appealing to Theo.

“‘I’m not suggesting anything,’ he says, though he doesn’t look disinterested, ‘but if I was, I think it would be a matter of seducing a local in the greatest number of individual cities.’”

The start of the competition between Theo and Kit represents an important development for the plot and the theme of The Pursuit of Pleasure. Even though they are discussing seducing other people, the main characters’ choices are still driven by their love for one another. Theo hopes that the competition will offer a distraction from her true feelings while Kit agrees to the competition so he will have an excuse to converse with Theo.

“Kit and I have always shared a need to know what we’re getting into. Kit takes leaps, once he’s confident he can control how he’ll land. I generally prefer the ground. But what’s on the plate—what’s in the glass, what melts into the palate, what plays nicely together in the pan—that’s where we both like to be surprised.”

Theo and Kit’s mutual “need to know what [they’re] getting into” is why it took them until they were 22 years old to risk their friendship with a romantic relationship. This risk aversion explains why they’re both so reluctant to take that same chance four years after their breakup. On the other hand, their love of surprising culinary combinations explains why they pursued careers in food and wine.

“It feels so natural here, like we’re among our people. Right now, I can imagine us here forever. Theo-and-Kit side-by-side in Saint-Jean-de-Luz. A perfect hyphenate daisy chain.”

Being in Saint-Jean-de-Luz feels “so natural” to Theo because she grew up in California’s Coachella Valley and feels at home where she can see both the sea and mountains. The rare sense of peace that settles over Theo in this chapter foreshadows the novel’s happy ending, in which Theo and Kit return to Saint-Jean-de-Luz to build a restaurant and a new life together.

“‘She wants you to know you don’t have to do this if you love someone else.’ The words land like a sprained ankle.”

Juliette is the first character to address Theo’s lingering love for Kit out loud, and the simile comparing the words to “a sprained ankle” emphasizes how painful Theo finds confronting these feelings. Although she is initially angry about the way that her unresolved longing for Kit complicates her ability to participate in their hookup competition, she later learns that Kit didn’t sleep with anyone that night either because he was also consumed with his feelings for her.

“‘Okay, so, I left you, but only because I thought you left me. And you left me, but only because you thought I left you.’ Ripples of light flash off the water and across Kit’s face, catching on the soft curve of his smile.”

In a turning point for the plot and the main characters’ relationship, Theo and Kit realize that their breakup was a misunderstanding. The “[r]ipples of light” on the characters’ faces represent the light of understanding, and the movement of their previously stuck boat serves as a metaphor for the way that Theo and Kit’s relationship can move forward now that they’ve addressed what was holding them back.

“When Kit comes, I hear him, and I see him in our bed, wrists pinned, bright tears in his eyes. I lean my forehead against Caterina’s hip—against Kit’s shoulder—and finish with a rough, punched-out cry.”

The past and present meld in this passage as McQuiston uses em dashes to bridge Theo’s memories of Kit and her tryst with Caterina. These connections lay Theo’s feelings for Kit bare, proving that the competition has not helped her move on as she had hoped.

“Theo, I love you. But you get in your own way. You have this—this nepotism chip on your shoulder, and you make your life harder on purpose just to prove to yourself that you’re not what you are. But you’re a Flowerday. You have options other people would fucking kill for. You’re just too proud to use them.”

Theo’s conversation with Sloane examines the connection between Theo’s self-sabotaging behaviors and her complex feelings toward her famous, affluent family. At the end of the book, Sloane invests in Theo and Kit’s new restaurant, demonstrating that Theo has learned to accept help without feeling like a fraud or a failure.

“(One day, the love of my life would say this explained everything about me. You can take the boy out of the fairy-tale hamlet, but you can never take the fairy-tale hamlet out of him.)”

Half of the novel is told from Theo’s point of view and the other half from Kit’s, granting the reader a deeper understanding of both main characters’ perspectives. This passage comes from the first chapter narrated by Kit, and he immediately reveals that he considers Theo “the love of [his] life.” This is an instance of dramatic irony because Theo has no idea that Kit still loves her at this point of the story.

“I’ll take my unsent letter to a beach in Palermo and bury it at sea, and I’ll return to Paris and spend the rest of my life loving someone I’ll never see again.”

Kit’s motivation for going on the tour highlights the similarities and differences between him and Theo. Both view the tour as a way of reckoning with unresolved feelings. However, she wants to move on and is angry at Kit, whereas there’s no anger on Kit’s side and he has no intention of trying to get over her. In addition, each of the two main characters brings along an object they hope will help them gain closure. Theo has a bottle of whiskey that Kit gave her on their first anniversary, and he carries an “unsent letter” he wrote to Theo after their breakup. The mention of the letter here foreshadows the novel’s ending because the letter convinces Theo to give their love a second chance.

“Maybe she feels so familiar and so new to me now because I’d heard the beginning note but not the completed chord. I knew her before her arches had points, before the paint to finish her had been invented. What a wonder, what a miracle: somehow, more of her.”

Kit compares Theo’s development to the baptistery beside the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which took 200 years to complete and is so acoustically perfect that sounds resonate long after they’ve been made. McQuiston uses the history and architecture of this specific setting to develop the main characters’ relationship. The fragment in which Kit marvels, “What a wonder, what a miracle,” expresses the depth of his love for Theo as well as his artistic appreciation for beauty and sense of wonder.

“‘It’s like…nothing in this life matters except what you want, and what feels good. Right? Taste everything, fuck how you like, nothing else matters. You know what I mean?’ ‘Of course,’ I say. ‘I’m French. We invented that.’”

Theo’s hedonistic opinions on the meaning of life directly touch on the theme of The Pursuit of Pleasure. Theo and Kit’s new arrangement falls under the category of “what feels good,” but they are ultimately unsatisfied by sex without romance, proving that they desire greater meaning than physical pleasure.

“‘But, anyway, the people who know me best say, That’s Theo, they’re my friend. And I’d like that to include you.’ My hand drifts reflexively to my chest, over my heart.”

Theo understanding her gender identity is an important part of The Journey Toward Self-Acceptance, and she shows that she wants Kit to be part of her life by inviting him to be one of “the people who know [her] best.” This coming out scene attests to the trust and friendship that the main characters rebuild during the tour.

“Theo, I have never met another person with more to offer the world and less faith in themself. You are brilliant, and magnetic, and strong, and impressive and—and vital, and I cannot keep listening to you talk about someone I love like this, so please, for God’s sake, stop.”

Kit accidentally reveals that Theo is “someone [he] love[s]” after she divulges that she failed the sommelier exam three times, has bankrupted her mobile bar business, and considers herself a failure. Kit’s passionate praise of Theo as “brilliant, and magnetic, and strong, and impressive” shows that he not only wants to give their love another chance but also wants Theo to give herself another chance. This marks a turning point for the plot and the characters’ relationship because they sleep together and hold each other after this conversation, which represents a new level of intimacy since their breakup.

“Theo doesn’t say anything, but it’s a soft silence. They nod and turn their eyes back to the windshield, which gradually reveals the distant outskirts of Rome. Squat roadside bars, stucco apartments, pointy cypress trees. I watch them roll by, a strange feeling within my chest like the moment a bubbling pan of sugar resolves into caramel. Like relief, like a turning.”

This “soft silence” falls after Kit apologizes for not involving Theo in his plans for their new life in France, a mistake that led to their disastrous fight four years ago. McQuiston uses the simile of “a bubbling pan of sugar” becoming caramel to capture the relief Kit feels during this turning point in their relationship. The simile connects to the novel’s focus on food and to Kit’s background as a pastry chef. Kit’s apology helps to heal the main characters’ relationship so that their love can have a second chance.

“My dad’s pattern. Deciding what he wants on some romantic whim, fixating on the fantasy, pursuing it without regard for how it will affect the people he loves or if they even want the same thing. That’s what I did to Theo with Paris. Am I about to do it again?”

This passage reveals the impact Kit’s father has on his inner conflict. Craig Fairfield moved his children to New York the year after his wife died, and he was an absent parent who failed to help Kit and his siblings through their grief. Because he fears repeating his father’s mistakes, Kit hesitates to confess his love for Theo or suggest they start a new life together in Saint-Jean-de-Luz lest this prove to be a mere “romantic whim.”

“‘I understand,’ Fabrizio says. ‘You love Theo. You do not want for Theo a selfish lover who takes away choices.’ ‘Yes.’ ‘And so, you take away the choice to be with you.’”

Fabrizio facilitates the story’s resolution by succinctly pointing out the flaw in Kit’s reasoning and encouraging him to confess his feelings to Theo. Fabrizio is able to provide this insightful advice because he’s observed the main characters throughout the tour and because, like Kit, he almost let the person he loves walk away because he thought she might be happier without him.

“It doesn’t leave room for me to care about you as a person. I don’t want to not care. I want you to be happy.”

Calling off the hookup competition represents an important moment of maturity and honesty for the main characters. Theo’s desire for Kit “to be happy” shows that she has let go of her jealousy and anger toward him. This demonstrates that they’ve grown closer over the tour and offers hope for their second chance at love.

“I’ll get over it one day, I swear, and we can be friends, but I—I just need a better kiss to remember […] How it feels to be in love with you.”

Although Kit repeatedly attempts to tell Theo that he loves her in Palermo, she tells him first. The novel has been building toward this scene from the moment the characters were reintroduced in London. However, in a plot twist, the characters soon decide that their lives are too different for them to pursue a romantic relationship at this time.

“‘I might need a new job,’ I confess. Theo laughs quietly, and so do I. ‘What about you? What’ll you do when you get home?’ ‘I think,’ Theo says, tipping their chin up with a declarative air, ‘I will try to figure out what the one thing I want to do is, and then really commit to that thing.’”

At this point in the novel, the characters are aware of their mutual love but believe that they should just be friends. Even though they don’t think they can be a couple, the resolutions they make about seeking “a new job” and committing to “the one thing” they want to achieve testify that they’ve both learned important things about themselves from their three weeks together.

“The worst mistake I could ever make is pretending I’d be happy as just your friend for the rest of my life. And I’m sorry if that’s not what you want to hear, but I couldn’t go home without saying it.”

In a major development for the plot, Theo misses her flight and goes to Kit’s apartment just as he is about to dash to the airport to find her. Theo seizes their second chance at love when she says that doing otherwise would be the “worst mistake [she] could ever make.” This daring, heartfelt declaration is even more significant because Theo fought to convince herself that she was over Kit and strongly fears failure.