52 pages 1 hour read

Julie Buxbaum

Tell Me Three Things

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016

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Chapters 19-23

Chapter 19 Summary

Jessie chats with SN the next morning and is reluctant to share that she works at the bookstore, but she ultimately tells him he should stop by and visit her. She is surprised to find her dad making pancakes, and he reminds her it is Gloria's day off. Jessie is certain he is going to announce that Rachel kicked them out, but he reassures her that their argument was not as catastrophic as it seemed. Bill attempts to have a well-intentioned check-in with Jessie, but his obliviousness to Jessie's struggles make her anger and resentment spiral, and the conversation quickly devolves into a fight.

Later, Caleb stops by the bookstore during Jessie's shift. Based on her conversation with SN that morning, she convinces herself that he must be SN. He asks for Liam, and they introduce themselves, which Jessie thinks is “a weird game [they're] playing” (178). She asks him out to coffee, and he says “'What's the worst that can happen?'” (178), which Jessie interprets as a reference to one of last night's messages with SN.

That evening, she tells SN it was nice of him to stop by, which he thinks is a joke. Jessie is convinced Caleb just wants to pretend she didn’t ask him out for coffee, and she is fine with sticking to speaking online, where they can avoid being awkward.