People Watching

On the day the brewery opens, business is booming as locals and tourists alike stop in for drinks. Milo works behind the bar with Aleks and Nik. When he catches sight of Prue sitting with Nadia and Sef, he announces to Aleks and his brother that he’s going to marry Prue. His declaration startles Aleks so much that he breaks two glasses.

Prue comes to the bar for a refill and to flirt with Milo, but she’s interrupted by a phone call from the caregiver who’s watching her mother, who can’t find the evening medication. Prue leaves to help, and Milo delivers drinks to Sef and Nadia, who both gush about how much they like Prue. Nadia confesses that she’s even thinking about staying in town for a while, and Milo returns to the bar, thinking he finally has a family.

At home, Prue finds her mother’s medication in her father’s office beside a pharmacy box with Tom’s name on it. Looking up his medication, she realizes that the prescription is for cancer. An open browser tab with his email reveals that he got the diagnosis months ago—he has been putting off treatment to keep running the store and taking care of Prue’s mother. Reading about his positive prognosis makes Prue feel less frightened, but the knowledge that her father kept this from her brings “inexplicably large, not previously experienced rage” (281).

Milo calls to check on her, and Prue asks him to come as she breaks down in sobs. When he gets there, she tells him about the cancer. Milo asks if her father’s prognosis still looks good if he starts treatment soon. With that, Prue realizes that Milo knew about the cancer before her. She demands to know how long he’s known and why he never told her. Milo admits that Tom told him not to tell her, but he doesn’t explain why until Prue threatens to completely cut him off. He reluctantly tells her about Tom’s wishes and how he asked Milo to help convince Prue to leave town.

Prue feels betrayed. Milo tries to tell her that he wants to stay and be with her, but she’s too overwhelmed to process his words. She asks him to leave, unsure if she actually wants him to go. When he’s gone, she laments that she “asked Milo Kablukov to leave when all [she’s] wanted for weeks now is to ask him to stay” (290).

Milo goes back to the brewery, where he tells Nadia and Nik about his deal with Tom and what just happened with Prue. His siblings agree that Tom put Milo in an unnecessarily difficult situation but also that Milo messed up by not telling Prue. Nik believes that the situation is fixable. Milo needs to give Prue some space and then explain himself without justifying his actions. He needs to finally tell her that he loves her and that he’ll give her time if she needs it. Terrified, Milo asks what he’ll do if he loses her anyway, to which Nik responds that he will always have Nik and Nadia.

After Milo leaves, Prue goes to her mother’s room and crawls into bed next to her. Silently weeping, she thinks about how her life is falling apart. Julia wakes and asks if Prue wants to discuss what’s bothering her. Prue wants to more than anything, but she doesn’t know where to start. In the end, she says no and falls asleep, vowing to “keep this family together, one way or another” (299).

The next morning, Prue talks to her father, explaining that she was always going to stay and asking why he can’t accept that. He tells her that all he has wanted since she was born is for her to get everything she wants from life. Lately, he’s felt like he’s stood in the way of that, but if Prue says she’s content in Baysville, he believes her.

Prue forgives her father for keeping secrets and telling Milo instead of her, but she insists that from this point forward, they will do everything together. She will keep her mother at home until there is no other option, and her father will start treatment as soon as possible.

At the studio, she finds a note and a package from Milo. The package contains all his drawings of Prue, and the note asks her to meet him that night at the dock. The drawings show a side of Prue that she’s never seen. After a lifetime of feeling like she’s on the sidelines of life, she’s amazed that he thinks of her as “a special, watchable, fascinating, beautiful thing worth creating art about” (306). Though she’s scared of what lies ahead for her and Milo, Prue knows she has to try for a relationship with him.

Milo arrives at the dock at sunset and paces until well after dark. When Prue finally arrives, he babbles apologies until she orders him to stop and take a breath. When he collects himself, he offers a more heartfelt apology and asks if she’ll give him a chance, even though he’s far from perfect and has so much to learn. Prue assures him that she has lots to learn, too, but “there’s no one else [she’d] rather learn with” (311). Milo tells her that he loves her and wants to stay in Baysville. Prue says that she loves him back and orders him to take her inside so that he can show her how much he cares.

Inside, Prue tells him that they don’t need to use a condom because she went on birth control a week earlier. It is the first time Milo’s ever had sex without a condom, and he’s overwhelmed by the feeling of Prue. Afterward, they fall asleep together, content.

Six months later, Milo has moved in with Prue’s family. Tom successfully got through cancer treatment and is recovering well. Julia comes downstairs dressed in her wedding gown. She doesn’t recognize Prue, but Tom says that Prue is her sister and that she brought a date to the wedding (Milo). As Prue and her mother prepare for the big day, Milo texts his group chat of business owners in town, all of whom offer their wares or spaces for the celebration.

After putting up a sign saying that the store is closed for the day, Milo checks a box of newly arrived, freshly published books, a combination of Prue’s poetry and his drawings, entitled “People Watching.” The final product is amazing, and Milo “can only hope that it will be the first of many, many wonderful things [they] will make together” (325).

The book came to be after Prue and Milo started leaving each other poems and pictures as a way to communicate when they were busy with the store and caretaking. Sef convinced them to sell copies at the store. Milo isn’t convinced that anyone will buy them, but he will save the money from any sales to take a short vacation with Prue now that her father is better. Preparing for the fake wedding makes Milo realize that he wants to marry Prue someday. When he tells her, she’s shocked but comes around quickly, easily saying yes to “someday.”