Mrs. Fletcher

This chapter is written in third-person, alternating the perspectives of Amanda and Eve. Eve’s colleague, 20-something Amanda, the events coordinator at the Senior Center, has lost her zest for life, following her mother’s death and her return to Haddington from New York. At her Bikram yoga class, Amanda bumps into Trish Lozano, a pretty, popular, former-cheerleader at her high school, who now goes by the name of Beckett, and permanently resides with her fiancé, a cinematographer in Los Angeles. While Trish apologizes for the person she used to be, Amanda feels terrible about her own life, and decides to console herself by hooking up with Bobby, a guy she meets through Tinder.

Eve, meanwhile, has to attend the funeral and wake of Roy Rafferty, the old man who exposed himself. While she navigates how to spend her evenings alone, she finds herself increasingly addicted to pornography. Although she is having more orgasms, the downside to her new hobby is that she feels that “you were out in the cold with your nose pressed against a widow, watching strangers at a party, wishing you could join them” (83).

Feeling lonely, Eve goes out to a bar for a cocktail. The bartender is Jim Hobie, Brendan’s childhood soccer coach.