53 pages • 1 hour read
Julie Murphy, Sierra SimoneA Merry Little Meet Cute
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 13-19Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “Nolan”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of R-rated sexual content, substance use, bullying, mental illness, and cursing.
Nolan accepts Bee’s invitation to have sex and kisses her. Though they risk getting caught, they can’t hold back any longer. As Nolan manually stimulates her, he notices Bee sucking in her stomach and tells her not to do that. She says that she always has to be conscious of camera angles but that she’s been wanting this for 10 years. Nolan realizes, “[S]he was having fun and having fun with me” (184). He isn’t jealous of her sharing her body with others, but he is jealous of the thought of her falling for someone else. He’s intrigued by the sex toys in her suitcase. They have intercourse so forcefully that they fall off the bed. When Nolan brings her to another orgasm afterward, Bee notes that porn scenes usually end with the male’s orgasm. They are glad that they have all night together.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Bee”
Bee wakes up with Nolan’s arm around her and reflects on having sex just for fun and not as part of her job. She thinks, “I felt more like Bee than Bianca. There were no cameras or fans or angles. Just me and Nolan” (192). They have sex again. Nolan asks if she likes doing porn, and Bee says that she likes the control she has as a performer but that she would also like to do mainstream work in the future. Bee feels uncertain when Nolan leaves the bed to take a call.
The staff are gathering for dinner, so Bee goes to the restaurant to join Gretchen and Pearl. Nolan sits across from her, and he and Gretchen share stories of teenage fame, including the time when Kallum took a picture of Winne Baker when she was drunk. Bee realizes, “My memories of Nolan from then were elaborate fantasies in my head based on someone I didn’t know” (202). The group goes to sing karaoke, and Luca coerces Nolan into performing an INK Christmas song. Bee drinks many Jell-O shots and gets drunk, and Nolan helps her to her room. She asks him to cuddle her, saying that no one cuddles in porn. He climbs into bed with her, reminding her that their relationship isn’t porn, it’s real life.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Nolan”
Nolan is woken by pounding on Bee’s door. Bee hides Nolan on the floor between the bed and the wall. She opens the door to a man she addresses as Teddy, the producer of their movie. Nolan realizes that Teddy is also Uncle Ray-Ray, the porn producer whom Bee works with. Teddy reminds Bee that he has to make this film work for the sake of financing his children’s dreams and that she wants to create a brand outside of Bianca. Nolan worries what will happen if people find out that his movie is being produced by a porn mogul. He feels like the consequences of exposure are too high to take the risk of being with Bee.
Nolan’s manager, Steph, texts him that she is coming to Christmas Notch, and Maddie informs him that they’ve gotten his mother’s medicine. Nolan resolves that he won’t answer his phone anymore on set, thinking, “How ironic would it be if I ruined my only shot at taking care of my family…by taking care of my family?” (217). Bee is distressed at having to ride a horse for the film. Nolan promises he will be with her the whole time.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Bee”
Bee attempts to control her anxiety as she mounts her horse: “I took a deep breath and forced my body to push through the anxiety” (221-22). She completes the take, but then Nolan’s phone rings, a gust of wind spooks the horse, and Bee is thrown to the ground. She returns to consciousness to find Sunny with her but no Nolan.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Nolan”
Nolan talks on the phone with his mother’s doctor. His mother has fainted in a parking lot and hit her head. Nolan is torn because he knows the doctor is doing everything possible, but he still feels like he should be at the hospital for his sister and mother. His sister tells him that he’s “micromanaging this family” and insists that he stay and finish filming (228). Nolan learns that Bee fell off her horse. He tries to visit her bedroom, but Sunny won’t let him in. Sunny says firmly, “You’re not her doctor, best friend, or mom. You are a fuckboy and fuckboy visiting hours don’t resume until tomorrow” (230).
Nolan sends Bee a message on her ClosedDoors account but doesn’t hear from her. He goes to the hotel bar to drink bourbon and runs into Steph, who has just arrived. Steph scolds Nolan for being on his phone when he should be performing and reminds him that the makers of the movie don’t care about his personal problems. If he’s seen as difficult to work with or unreliable, he won’t be offered jobs. Nolan apologizes to Gretchen, who reminds him that he’s been given second chance after second chance, more than he deserves. Nolan promises her that he’s changed and will take his acting seriously.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Bee”
Bee wakes up to find Sunny watching old Hope Channel movies. Sunny says that she’s been called in as a makeup artist and that her dad will be so proud that she’s working on a non-porn film. Sunny cautions Bee about getting involved with Nolan, as she saw how Bee was hurt by her ex-boyfriend, Spencer. Bee realizes, “I’d almost always been the secret of everyone I’d ever been in a relationship with. Sometimes it was because I was fat. Sometimes it was because I was a sex worker. And sometimes it was because of both” (243). She realizes that she wants a relationship with someone who will be fun in bed but also stand by her in the harsh light of day.
Bee showers and goes to Nolan’s room. He apologizes for letting her down and explains what is going on with his mother and sister and how he feels responsible. Bee is moved by his struggle. She realizes that she’s been waiting for him to hurt her because she never really believed she could have him; he’s a fantasy to so many. Nolan jokes about how his cousin once sold Nolan’s underwear on eBay. Nolan asks about Teddy’s role in the movie, and Bee says that he is diversifying his income streams and that Christmas movie shoots aren’t much different from adult films. They both realize that they want to be together, even if they aren’t sure what that looks like.
Chapter 19 Summary: “Nolan”
Bee and Nolan have sex, and Nolan realizes that Bee as Bianca is “never her own dirty girl, never doing dirty things only for fun and only for her own pleasure. There [i]s always the image to consider, the brand, the performance. It [i]s all give and no take, and [he] underst[ands] that all too well” (254). Nolan realizes that he doesn’t want things with Bee to end. He thinks of their room and how “[e]verything smell[s] like sex and coffee and Christmas, and it [i]s heaven. It [i]s actual heaven” (257). He asks Bee if she would like to keep seeing him after the movie is done filming. She confesses that he still feels like a mirage to her and that the closer she gets to him, the less real he seems. He promises he’s real and that he’s not going to disappear. She says she will take him however she can get him, even though she realizes that they can’t be together in public because of his image. Kallum calls to share that a sex tape he made has leaked.
Chapters 13-19 Analysis
These chapters bring into focus questions about the boundaries between fantasy and reality as Bee and Nolan pursue sexual intimacy, furthering the theme of The Dissonance Between Public Persona and Private Self. While Nolan experienced a confusion between his fantasy of Bianca and the real Bee when he called her “Bianca” in their first sexual encounter, Bee is now struggling to learn who Nolan really is. The pull of her youthful crush on him is still strong, especially through identifiers like the INK song he performs at karaoke or the tattoos she recognizes from his INK days. In some ways, having sex with Nolan is acting out a fantasy—much like she does for viewers of her films. She is still trying to discern the person he is beneath the persona of both old, bad-boy Nolan Shaw and new, reformed Nolan Shaw. Learning his real last name, Kowalczk, indicates that Bee is taking steps to know the real Nolan. In this way, the novel emphasizes that there is a real basis to their relationship and that they are both working to separate fantasy from reality.
This section of the novel increasingly emphasizes the risks for them in pursuing a relationship, showing how The Pursuit of Pleasure and The Painful Effects of Discrimination are in growing tension. Nolan is still pursued by the shadow of his previous irresponsible activity, particularly activity considered promiscuous, like his activity with Emily Albright, the figure skater. Bee understands that being linked with a porn star, no matter how popular, will tarnish Nolan in the eyes of those who equate sexual continence with moral good. Bee also questions what it means for her own ambitions of having a career as a mainstream actress if the public learns that she is Bianca von Honey. Through Bee’s internal monologue, this section further explores the complexities of sex work, especially as perceived by others. Bee maintains a positive and accepting attitude toward her sex work and treats her coworkers with respect for their profession and their expertise, but she realizes that this is not the universal attitude. Her understanding that these attitudes can harm both her future opportunities and her future with Nolan maintains conflict and tension. Kallum’s concern about his sex tape being exposed to public consumption illustrates the dangers of needing to keep private lives separate and away from cameras, the press, public exposure, and public judgment.
The lively and varied sexual encounters between Nolan and Bee speak to the theme of the pursuit of pleasure, emphasizing the joy they feel with one another. For Bee in particular, sexual pleasure without a performative aspect is a novelty. She is discovering the joys of having sex purely for her own pleasure, not to please fans, consumers, or subscribers, yet she also understands that, unlike her sex work, this must remain a private pleasure between her and Nolan. The risk they take at being together introduces the appeal of the forbidden but also presents obstacles to the developing relationship, which is traced through their several shared qualities. Both are concerned about the welfare of their family, they have a shared background in and love for theater, and they both understand the constraints of having a public image to maintain and needing to perform for consumers and fans. Both, too, long for respect and a sense of legitimacy in their careers, and both would rather not be subject to censure for previous work or behavior. The similarity of these obstacles creates irony, as it emphasizes their natural connection as a couple, characteristic of the romance genre.
The premise of the film continues to provide humor as Duke the Halls offers a parody of the romantic comedy genre, which often features protagonists who are thrown out of their usual context and fall in love despite differences. Their film especially confronts the popular trope of attraction across class difference—one that is, in the movie script, exacerbated by the characters belonging to different time periods. The movie script provides the scripted beats expected of the romance formula: falling in love, learning to be in one another’s worlds, the third-act breakup, and the reconciliation. This is the same pattern that Nolan and Bee’s relationship is following, adding a layer of parodic story within a story that self-consciously sets up the novel itself.
