49 pages • 1-hour read
Wild Side
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Chapters 26-35Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 26 Summary: “Tabitha”
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes sexual content and addiction.
Tabitha is overcome by her desire to be with Rhys. Her grief and sadness dissolve as soon as Rhys starts touching her. They kiss and move their hands under each other’s clothes. Tabitha’s “skin sizzles” and she “can barely breathe” (229). Although enjoying the experience, she soon pulls away. She insists they shouldn’t act on their feelings because their marriage isn’t real, but admits that in another life things might be different.
Tabitha’s face is still flushed when she meets up with Rosie, Skylar, Doris, and another friend named Gwen. They tease her about Rhys but Tabitha brushes off their comments. Then Gwen, a yoga instructor in town, reveals that Rhys takes her class and often talks about Tabitha. Tabitha blushes.
Chapter 27 Summary: “Rhys”
Rhys goes bowling with his new friends. He’s glad to see Tabitha and is overwhelmed by emotion remembering their kiss. Throughout the night, all of the friends laugh and joke. Rhys and Tabitha pull each other aside and chat about what happened between them and how they can’t stop thinking about each other. They start touching again but Doris interrupts. Rhys wishes they could be alone together.
Back at home, the couple discovers the marriage certificate arrived. Rhys feels sad thinking about leaving Tabitha and Milo. They study the document together and discuss name changes and logistics for Milo’s care. Before going to bed, Tabitha tells Rhys what Gwen told her. Rhys admits everything he’s told Gwen is true.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Tabitha”
Tabitha and Milo say goodbye to Rhys the next morning. Feeling sad, Tabitha reflects on how her feelings for Rhys have changed. She worries about his well-being while he’s away and initiates a lengthy texting conversation. They joke and tease about wrestling, the cat, and their life together. Meanwhile, Tabitha keeps up with Rhys’s matches on television. She’s thrilled when she sees the promo clip they did together. Via text, Rhys opens up more about his wrestling career; Tabitha realizes how much he’s entrusting to her.
Chapter 29 Summary: “Rhys”
Rhys confronts Anthony, a producer, about changes in Wild Side’s storyline. Anthony has had the writers develop a romance between Wild Side and Elle, another actor, wrestler, and producer on the show. Rhys insists he’s not going to go along with the storyline, but Anthony reminds him of his contract. Afterward, Rhys worries about Tabitha’s response to the new storyline. Via text that evening, the two discuss their marriage, family, and work. Rhys ends up telling her about his work conflicts. Tabitha is supportive. She assures him he doesn’t have to worry about her because everyone has to do things they don’t want to do for work.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Tabitha”
Tabitha drops off Milo at her parents’ house for a few days; they’re going on a camping trip so she can have some time to herself. Before leaving, she reminds Lisa to let Milo talk about Erika if he needs to. Afterward, she returns home to her quiet house. She cleans up and works on refurnishing the basement for Rhys. Then she turns on the television to watch his match. Afterward, she texts him to say how proud she is of him.
Chapter 31 Summary: “Tabitha”
Tabitha takes the next day off to clean and relax. After doing chores, attending yoga, and finishing Rhys’s room, she starts sorting through Erika’s things and is overwhelmed when she finds Erika’s journals. She sits on the patio reading Erika’s entries from the start of her pregnancy until her death. They reveal that Erika had a crush on Rhys and tried initiating something between them. She was frustrated when Rhys turned her down and repeatedly asked about Tabitha. Although she started relying on Rhys for childcare, she began sleeping with someone named Tyson to get over her feelings for Rhys. She sometimes wished she could have a family with Rhys but soon became invested in Tyson. She gave him money, started using drugs again, and disappeared from home and work more often. Finally, she ran out of funds. She couldn’t pay rent and didn’t want to ask Tabitha or Rhys for another loan (they’d both given her large sums of money already). Instead, she lied to Tabitha and told her that Rhys kicked her out. She’d also lied to Rhys about Tabitha.
Erika envied Tabitha’s life and didn’t like that Rhys liked her. Therefore, she told Tabitha not to come to her new apartment because she was doing well, and told Rhys that Tabitha was distant and didn’t care about her. She also named Rhys Milo’s legal guardian because she’d discovered how rich he was when he opened up about his wrestling career (which she thought was silly).
Tabitha bursts into tears while reading the letters. She’s angry with herself for directing so much anger at Rhys when he was only good to Erika. She’s also frustrated with Erika for pushing her away, deceiving her, and taking advantage of Rhys. Even still, Tabitha blames herself for failing to save Erika.
Chapter 32 Summary: “Rhys”
Desperate to be with Tabitha, Rhys flies home early. He finds her crying on the patio over Erika’s journals. Through tears, Tabitha apologizes for all of their misunderstandings. Then she retreats to the bathroom where Rhys finds her sitting in the shower under the cold water. He climbs in beside her and holds her as she cries.
Chapter 33 Summary: “Rhys”
Rhys and Tabitha sit together in the freezing shower. When they get out, Rhys helps Tabitha change out of her wet clothes and puts her to bed. He retreats to the basement, shocked to discover how Tabitha fixed up the space.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Tabitha”
Tabitha lies in bed thinking about Rhys. Missing him, she enters the basement without knocking and climbs into bed beside him. They admit how much they’ve missed each other and Tabitha asks Rhys to comfort her. They kiss passionately before straddling each other and having sex. Tabitha is overwhelmed by how much she wants Rhys and enjoys being with him. Immediately after they both orgasm, Tabitha wants to have sex again.
Chapter 35 Summary: “Rhys”
Rhys wakes up next to a sleeping Tabitha. Rhys studies Tabitha, petting her hair and reflecting on his feelings for her. He wonders if this is how love starts. Tabitha wakes up and tells Rhys she’d like him to read Erika’s journals. They go upstairs to the patio and read the journals together over coffee. Rhys feels grateful that he understands Erika better and that she brought Tabitha into his life.
Chapters 26-35 Analysis
These chapters explore another key theme, Developing Family and Community Relationships. The newly married couple opens up to each other about their pasts, feelings, and desires. As their emotional connection develops, their sexual and romantic intimacy grows naturally. In this way, the novel suggests that emotional and sexual intimacy are linked and that an emotional connection deepens a physical one.
At the start of the novel, Tabitha and Rhys tamp down their attraction to one another out of self-preservation. In these chapters, however, the couple stops trying to deny how they feel and embraces their individual desires. Doing so opens pathways for connection and healing. What begins as a marriage of convenience develops into a family. As a unit, Tabitha and Rhys are better able to acknowledge, confront, and sort through their grief. They offer each other what their own nuclear families haven’t been able to give them in the past.
The evolution of Tabitha and Rhys’s dynamic deepens the novel’s Exploration of Identity and Trust in Intimate Relationships. Tabitha and Rhys learn how to be vulnerable with each other. They are also better able to be honest with themselves. Tabitha is struck “by the gravity of the situation: “We aren’t just two people anymore. There’s a legal element, a co-parenting element. His fortune. My restaurant. The ways this could go bad are…bad” (229). Rhys is also afraid of overstepping the parameters of his and Tabitha’s arrangement, as he doesn’t want to intrude upon her grief or jeopardize Milo’s already tenuous family situation. However, once the couple begins to confront their grief and loss they realize they need each other and can shepherd each other through challenges.
Tabitha’s discovery of Erika’s journals marks a turning point in her and Rhys’s relationship, as well as in her personal journey toward healing. Tabitha soon realizes that she needs the journals to understand the truth of what happened to Erika in the past as well as how to process her death in the present. The journals offer a portal into Erika’s life in the years preceding the narrative present. They are a narrative device used to provide insight into Erika’s character and her intimate relationships. When Tabitha reads them, she discovers her sister anew, which in turn alters the dimensions of her grief.
The journals change Tabitha’s perspective in several ways: they make her understand that her anger with Rhys has been unfounded; they make her realize that Erika was jealous of her; and they clarify Erika’s reasons for naming Rhys as Milo’s legal guardian. Without the journals, Tabitha wouldn’t have had access to this information. She wouldn’t have been able to forgive herself or make amends with Rhys.
The journals bring Tabitha and Rhys together. When Rhys returns to Rose Hill early, he finds Tabitha in an emotionally vulnerable state—crying for the first time since Erika passed away. This inspires the pair to talk about Erika’s death and the inception of their relationship in an authentic manner—something they haven’t done since becoming involved. In the subsequent shower scene, the characters sit under the freezing water—symbolic of cleansing and renewal. Instead of dismissing their emotions, they sit with them. When they have sex, they are not only acting on their desire for the first time but comforting each other in a way that shows emotional connection.
Through these scenes, the novel shows how being open about one’s identity with a loved one can foster emotional trust and physical connection. Tabitha and Rhys’s relationship may have begun as a result of their loss, but it develops as a result of their mutual desire and need. Their deepening dynamic conveys the nuanced nature of intimacy, and how emotional connection can make the individual stronger.
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