51 pages • 1-hour read
Addicted to You
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Chapters 7-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of substance use, addiction, sexual content, and emotional abuse.
Lily picks a dress and sits in the dressing room as her sisters try on dozens of different ones. She stares at a man waiting for his wife and imagines being with him to distract herself. While dress shopping, Lily finds herself lost: She doesn’t know basic things about her family, like her sister Daisy having a boyfriend. Lily can sense that Rose is still sad that Lily chose to go to the University of Pennsylvania instead of Princeton University with her, but Lily could never let her sister find out about her sexual habits. She gets a text from a guy she barely remembers and decides to break her rule to meet him again.
Chapter 8 Summary
Lily wakes up at home the next day feeling awful, and she finds that the girl Lo was with is still there. Lo is making breakfast and asks Lily if she wants some, but Lily can’t bear to see Lo treating another woman the way he usually treats her. Lily decides to leave to meet up with a guy, but Lo follows her out to the elevator, sensing that something is wrong. Lily indirectly reveals that she’s jealous of Lo’s date, telling him that she plans to go hook up with someone.
Chapter 9 Summary
Lily meets up with a guy, but she can’t stop thinking about Lo. She remembers when they were 14 and Lo’s father yelled at him for getting poor grades in algebra. Lily tried to comfort Lo by seducing him, and they had sex—the first and only time.
Chapter 10 Summary
Lily loses track of the days and eventually awakes with two men in her bed and no memory of the night before. Lo comes into Lily’s room and tells the men to leave. He tells Lily to get dressed so that he can take her to get tested for sexually transmitted infections. Lily realizes that she hasn’t been at school for a week, and Lo expresses concern over how absent and aloof Lily has been. He worries about her safety and warns her to have limits. Lo also reveals that he broke up with the girl he was seeing after he noticed how upset it made Lily. Lily comes out of testing without any issues and is happy to have Lo there with her. She remembers the first time she had sex with two guys in one night when she was 17. Afterward, she went over to Lo’s and found comfort with him, who didn’t judge Lily for what she had done.
Chapter 11 Summary
Lily deletes some numbers off her phone and stays off Craigslist in an effort to be safer. Daisy calls and asks to spend the night, and Lily is flattered and agrees. She then panics, realizing that she sleeps in the guest room and has to clean it up before Daisy arrives. Lo helps her, and then Daisy arrives. Minutes after Daisy arrives, Lo approaches Lily in the kitchen and kisses her, and Daisy, seemingly uncomfortable, retires to the guest room. Lily follows Lo into his room and stares around at all the photographs he has of them together. One photo shows Lily and Lo dressed up for a comic convention, and Lily tries to take the photo from Lo. Lo grabs Lily’s wrists and pins her, which makes Lily want to have sex with him. She tries to tell him that his teasing is too much and that he should either have sex with her or back off, so Lo steps away. He suggests that Lily drink enough to fall asleep and forget about sex, and Lily ends up drinking so much that she gets sick. Lo helps her in the bathroom, and Lily hears him mention how he should have just had sex with her instead.
Chapter 12 Summary
Lily wakes up to find that her parents are there with suitcases. They secretly planned a family trip to the Bahamas for her father’s birthday, and Daisy spent the night so that Lily couldn’t escape. Lily and Lo realize that they will be stuck on a yacht with Lily’s family, without their vices.
Chapter 13 Summary
Lily and Lo aren’t keen to get on the yacht with Lily’s family. Lo sneaks drinks from the bartender the whole time, and Lily can’t stop thinking about sex. As Lo rubs sunscreen on her on the deck, Lily gets turned on, and the presence of an attractive server makes matters worse. She leaves to take a cold shower, but it doesn’t help. Lo tells Lily that if she sleeps with the server, he won’t want anything to do with her.
Chapter 14 Summary
Lily is stuck between wanting to fulfill her compulsion for sex and not wanting to risk her chance at a relationship with Lo. She sits in the hot tub with her sisters, but she decides to sneak away with the server. She brings the server down to the cabins but finds Lo there, waiting for her. Lo takes Lily into their cabin and closes the door, telling her that he wants her and feels insulted that she would rather have sex with random people than him. Lily never realized that Lo felt this way about her. Lily and Lo finally have sex, and Lily never wants the feeling to end.
Chapter 15 Summary
Lily and Lo stay up talking about their relationship, finally telling one another how they feel after three years of pretending. Lo admits that he has always wanted Lily and that he has always seen her as his girlfriend, even though they weren’t having sex. He didn’t want to be just another guy to her. Lily always thought that Lo was teasing her and leading her on, and she worries that she won’t be able to remain monogamous. Still, Lily agrees to try, and Lo agrees to drink less so that he can be there for Lily. They hold each other tightly, and Lily hopes to never let go.
Chapters 7-15 Analysis
Following the authors’ deeper exploration of Lily and Lo’s relationship, as well as their addictions, the roots of their complex bond and how their compulsions intertwine come into sharper focus. Lily’s early use of sex as a coping mechanism is revealed through flashbacks, particularly her memory of having sex for the first time with Lo at age 14. This act was less about love or romance and more about trying to shift emotional dynamics; Lily hoped to soothe Lo’s pain over his father’s disapproval. However, this moment laid the groundwork for their dynamic, where sex and emotional connection are entangled in harmful ways. This reinforces The Precarious Nature of Addiction, as both characters continue to rely on each other to enable their compulsions rather than confront their issues. Lily also secretly has strong feelings for Lo, and whenever she has the desire to be with him, she sleeps with a stranger instead. The way Lily handles jealousy further illuminates her dependence on external validation. Rather than confronting her feelings for Lo, she escapes into meaningless sexual encounters, convincing herself that avoiding intimacy with him preserves their relationship. She tells herself, “I won’t make a mistake that can cost us what we have. So I pocket my phone, put my car in reverse, and make new plans. Ones that involve blank faces and unpainted canvases. Ones that don’t involve him” (87). She sees sex as a transactional escape, mirroring The Relationship Between Sex and Misogyny, where her objectification by others translates into her own self-perception as an object rather than a person deserving of care and connection.
Lo’s behavior also underscores the theme of The Truths and Lies of Love, as his constant teasing and ambivalence prevent Lily from feeling secure in their relationship. His inadvertently manipulative moments, such as encouraging Lily to drink to suppress her desires or using their shared history to influence her decisions, reveal his own toxic tendencies. However, Lo’s genuine concern for Lily surfaces when he reacts to her increasingly reckless behavior, such as bringing home multiple men. Ironically, although Lo is concerned, his own influence on Lily is harmful, as he frequently teases and uses her and encourages her to drink to forget about her sexual desire. This dichotomy in his actions highlights the complicated interplay between their individual compulsions and their codependence.
The turning point on the yacht shows a shift in their dynamic. Free from their usual environment, Lo and Lily finally express their feelings, bridging years of miscommunication and hidden desires. Their decision to formalize their relationship seems like progress, but it is also fraught with risk. As Lily reflects, “Being in a real relationship was supposed to fix the kinks in our lives…We no longer have to pretend. We can be ourselves. We’re free from one lie” (224). This optimism is misplaced, as their deep-seated issues cannot be resolved by love alone. Instead, their relationship only intensifies their dependencies, complicating their paths to recovery.
Lily’s family becomes a more prominent force in these chapters, exemplifying The Role of Family in Self-Healing. Despite Lily’s efforts to distance herself, her sisters persist in trying to reconnect with her. The family’s unannounced trip to the Bahamas forces Lily to spend time with them, offering her a chance to bond and confront her estrangement. However, the presence of her family also heightens Lily’s internal conflict, as she tries to balance her compulsions with her growing awareness of how disconnected she has become. Her family’s attempts at spending time with her, though intrusive, foreshadow their critical role in her eventual recovery. Lo’s own strained family relationships contrast with Lily’s. While Lily’s family shows persistence and care, Lo’s distant interactions with his father reveal the damaging effects of neglect and judgment. This juxtaposition underscores how family dynamics shape their respective coping mechanisms and suggests that while Lily may find support through her family, Lo’s path to healing will require him to detach from his. Through these chapters, the authors illustrate how addiction, relationships, and family intersect in complex and often painful ways. The narrative highlights how love can both heal and harm, depending on whether it is rooted in honesty and mutual growth or codependence and enabling. These developments set the stage for Lily and Lo to confront the deeper truths about themselves and their relationship.
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