Betting on You

“Yeah, it was time to mess with her. Messing with her in the boarding line had actually taken my mind off Grace for a few minutes, so perhaps it was karma that had assigned her uptight ass to the seat beside me. I’d been good all summer, so maybe karma knew I needed a distraction. Maybe karma was a girl in glasses.”

From the moment they first meet, Charlie views Bailey as a safe space to distract himself from the anxiety-inducing, ugly aspects of his life. In their subsequent meetings, this continues, but she goes beyond a great distraction to become a place of calm that he retreats to in moments of emotional turmoil. This passage establishes Charlie’s character immediately with his sarcasm and sense of humor.

“‘Everybody knows that if the shit goes down, we’re dead.’ His voice was deep and rumbly as he murmured, ‘They go through these motions to give passengers a false sense of hope, but the reality is that if the plane crashes, our bodies are going to be splattered for miles.’”

Painter introduces readers to Charlie’s cynicism early on, depicting his bleak outlook on life through his diction, which includes dark humor and sarcastic comments. A clear picture of Charlie is portrayed through his dialogue in these early chapters. This vivid portrayal also heightens the contrast between his character and Bailey’s, which also highlights the opposite ways in which they will navigate handling their parents’ divorces.

“He gave his head a slow shake, as if I were the world’s biggest fool. ‘Oh my God, you are precious. You’re like a sweet baby child who believes everything her mommy tells her.’”

In contrast to the jadedness that Charlie is showcasing, he teases Bailey for her naivety. Her parents have gotten divorced more recently than his have, so in his opinion, she is still childlike in her navigation of this new post-divorce territory and thus not yet jaded about life and love.