The Pairing (The Proposition, #3)

Shortly before Kit and Theo’s breakup, Kit visits his Uncle Thierry, who lives in a Parisian pied-à-terre that has been in his mother’s family for generations. Thierry intends to sell the apartment because he is going to live with his girlfriend in Portugal, and he is overjoyed to learn that the place can stay in the family because Kit is moving to Paris. Thierry hopes that Theo will be joining Kit, and he answers, “I haven’t told her yet. But I have a plan” (201).

The novel moves four years forward in time. With Maxine’s encouragement, Kit decides to go on the culinary tour. He plans to throw an unsent letter to Theo into the sea at the tour’s stop in Palermo and then spend the rest of his life pining over them. He’s astonished to see Theo in London looking “fiercer and stronger and screamingly hotter than ever before” (206), and he agrees to try to be friends because he welcomes their presence in his life in any form. After Kit kisses Theo in Monaco, he apologizes, not wanting them to realize that he’s still deeply in love with them. Theo is angry with Kit the next day, and he thinks that they're upset with him for asking for more when they agreed to be friends. That night, Kit tells Theo that he’s wanted to kiss them since they reunited in London, and Theo proposes that they resolve the tension between them. Under this new arrangement, they agree to have sex but to refrain from kissing. Theo and Kit unleash their pent-up feelings for one another inside a shed in a vineyard. They both leave their clothes on during this encounter.

The tour bus breaks down on the way to Pisa, and Theo uses their knowledge of Volkswagen engines to repair it. Kit feels deeply attracted to Theo as he watches the confidence and competence with which they work, and he’s grateful that they trust him to help them. Theo has avoided photographs since tabloids fixated on the suit they wore to an event when they were 11, but Theo likes the picture Kit takes of them beside the famous tower. As Kit wanders through Pisa’s cathedral with Theo, he feels grateful to them and the tour for reviving his sense of wonder, which began to wane during his time in Paris.

Over gelato, Theo and Kit decide to continue their new sexual arrangement, and Theo tells him that they are nonbinary. Theo’s pronouns are “she/her” and “they/them,” and they prefer that their close friends use “they/them.” Kit appreciates this information and tells Theo that the attraction he feels for them has always felt different from the attraction he feels for men and women.

Theo and Kit marvel at the Duomo together. Kit explains that this is his first time visiting Florence because going to the cities on the tour without Theo would have felt wrong to him. He guides Theo to the Buontalenti Grotto. While they admire frescoes and sculptures from the Renaissance, Kit waxes poetic about how sex made the city of Florence “the perfect environment for an artistic awakening” (247). Theo teases him for his philosophical approach to intimacy and explains that they see sex as a source of short-term pleasure. Kit wonders if that’s all that sex is to them and brings them to climax while they hold onto a fountain carved in the shape of Venus. Afterward, Theo buys them lunch at a sandwich shop.

While Theo goes to see Michelangelo’s David, Kit goes to the Uffizi Gallery. He recalls how his father fell in love with his mother after seeing her watercolor paintings, and he reminisces on how his own search for creativity and beauty led him to study art history and then pastry. As Kit gazes upon Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, the goddess’s features remind him of aspects of himself and Theo. Kit rejoins Theo, Fabrizio, and the rest of the tour group for drinks and dinner. Everyone cheers for Theo as they uses her knowledge of wine to identify three vintages in a blind tasting. Afterward, they go to a bar, where Theo admits that they didn’t sleep with Juliette and Kit admits that he didn’t sleep with Paloma. This brings the score in their hookup competition to five to three. When Theo alludes to Kit’s sexual exploits at pastry school, he explains that Maxine greatly exaggerated in an attempt to make him sound better to Theo. They both open up about how much they struggled emotionally after the breakup.

When they run out of money, Theo fakes a marriage proposal to Kit so the bar’s patrons will buy them drinks: “Will you do me the honor of spending the rest of your life with me?” (266). To sell their act, Theo dips Kit and pretends to kiss him. Kit wishes that the proposal was real.

The tour group stays in a villa in Chianti, and Theo and Kit are accidentally assigned to the same room. They undress and look at each other with undisguised interest. The moment is interrupted by the arrival of a bottle of wine and a note that reads, “Theo, Might have taken it a bit too far. Sorry. Love you. —Sloane P.S. Offer still stands” (276). Theo quickly hides the bottle in a wardrobe, but Kit has already seen the note. Theo swims in the estate’s pool while Kit finishes A Room with a View. After dinner, Theo calls the sommelier at Timo to verify a story they tells their fellow tourists. The sommelier mentions that Theo should be preparing for the Court of Master Sommeliers certification exam, and Theo is mortified because they let Kit think that they already passed.

On the verge of tears, Theo hurries to their room. Theo tells Kit that they failed the sommelier exam three times, that they'll have to sell their mobile bar to pay off the credit card debt they took on to fund their freelance business, and that they consider themselves a failure. Kit urges Theo not to give up on herself and accidentally says that he loves them. They renegotiate the rules of their arrangement so that they are allowed in bed together. Theo tells Kit how they want him to touch himself, and he relishes this opportunity to show them how competent they are. Afterward, they fall asleep in each other’s arms.