54 pages • 1 hour read
Waiting to Exhale
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Chapters 24-28Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 24 Summary: “Still Waves in It”
Phillip refuses to allow Gloria to come see him and tells her that he does not have health insurance because he is HIV-positive, which is considered a pre-existing condition. Phillip is struggling financially, so Gloria sends him some money and encourages her friends to do the same. Gloria is struggling to find help at the shop, which leads to long hours. She dreams of selling the shop and moving back to California, but she doesn’t want to leave before Tarik goes into Up with People.
Savannah comes into the shop one evening after Gloria has put in a long day. Instead of getting her hair cut, Savannah invites Gloria out to dinner. They go a local Asian restaurant, and they talk about the shop, about the AIDS epidemic, and about Gloria’s relief that a third person who was going to quit has decided to stay. Savannah tells Gloria that she got the job as a producer, and it comes with a large pay raise. Savannah also says that she’s going to fly her mother out for Christmas. They talk about men, and Gloria admits that her neighbor, Marvin, has been spending a lot of time at her house lately. Savannah takes responsibility in her failed affair with Charles and says she hasn’t given up on men, but she will think twice about being that open with a man again.
Gloria gets home and decides to go for a swim before Marvin comes over to hook up her new CD player. As Gloria returns to her room to get dressed, she finds herself thinking about Savannah’s question about what she’ll do with herself when Tarik goes to college. As she does, her heartburn returns, and she goes to get her antacid when a pain strikes the center of her chest.
Chapter 25 Summary: “Unreasonable Requests”
Savannah’s car breaks down because she forgot to get the oil changed, and the engine seized up. Savannah arrives home to a phone call from her mother announcing the birth of her sister’s new baby. When her mother starts encouraging Savannah to be kinder to Kenneth, Savannah asks her mother to stop pressuring her to be with a man. Her mother understands and apologizes. Her mother then asks if she would mind if her mother stays home for Christmas to help Sheila with her baby. Savannah agrees. Kenneth calls immediately after Savannah hangs up with her mother. Savannah tells him she doesn’t want to see him again because he has no intention of divorcing his wife. The following day, Savannah buys a new car, makes an appointment to discuss adoption with Black Family and Child services, and visits an acupuncturist to help her stop smoking.
Chapter 26 Summary: “Friendship”
Gloria wakes up in the hospital and learns she has had a massive heart attack. Tarik found her, and Marvin performed CPR that likely saved her life. Robin, Savannah, and Bernadine are visiting when the doctor comes to speak to them, insisting they are all family. The doctor says Gloria had a clogged artery that caused her artery to go into spasm. They are struggling to get her heart into a normal rhythm, but they believe she will be okay. After four days, they move her to another unit, and everyone encourages her to get well quickly. Tarik also announces he got into Up with People.
Chapter 27 Summary: “The Weight of All Things”
Robin’s father has died, and she has recently learned she is pregnant. She hasn’t told Russell but has already made the decision to keep the baby. Michael has been a source of comfort and has even offered to marry her despite not being the baby’s father. Robin is touched and happy to have him as a friend, but won’t marry him. Robin gets a promotion at work and expects to get a large bonus at Christmas. She’s thinking of taking time off to be with her mother during this time of grief. Robin has given up astrology and is determined to be a good mother, aware that she can lean on Bernadine and Gloria when she needs help.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Back to Life”
Bernadine’s divorce is finally settled, and she learns that she will be getting nearly a million dollars. She plans a celebration with her girlfriends. She also begins thinking about all the things she can spend the money on, including a trip to Paris with Savannah and donations to several charitable organizations. She speaks to Savannah and invites her to spend Christmas with her and her kids even though James will be there. She speaks to Robin and learns that Russell denied being her child’s father when Robin told him. She talks to Gloria, who tells her that she and Marvin finally shared a kiss. She also finds out that Desiree came back to the shop, and Gloria encourages Bernadine to send Phillip some money. Bernadine then thinks that she might quit her job at the first of the year and use some of the money to open a bakery called Bernadine’s Sweet Tooth.
Chapters 24-28 Analysis
Each of the protagonists’ individual storylines reach their climactic moments in the final chapters.
For Gloria, the AIDS epidemic comes to the fore once again when Phillip discloses his HIV status and that it’s preventing him from getting medical insurance and care for his shingles. Overwhelmed with both sympathy for Phillip but also stress from long hours at the shop, Gloria’s blood pressure increases and she has a massive heart attack. This heart attack is foreshadowed throughout the book as Gloria struggles to manage her blood pressure and later experiences chest pain, and it is revealed that Gloria’s mother died young of a heart attack. The heart attack leads to closer connections between her and her friends, her son, and Marvin, who saved her life. Ultimately, Gloria’s life takes a turn for the better, as Desiree returns to the shop and she shares a kiss with Marvin. There is new hope for Gloria’s future.
The end of Savannah’s character arc is marked by several moments of empowerment in these chapters. First, she sets a boundary with her mother regarding her pressuring Savannah to be with a man. Similarly, she sets a boundary with Kenneth, insisting that she won’t see him again while he’s still married but realizing that fact will not change. Savannah realizes that what happened with Charles was not a reflection on her, but that she shared blame in it by letting her guard down. It is clear that Savannah is not done looking for love, but will be approaching her search with a new, slightly jaded outlook. In the meantime, Savannah takes steps toward improving her life in ways that she finds meaningful: She not only seeks help to quit smoking, but she is inspired to speak to an adoption worker after reading an article about Black children who spend a long time in foster care. In this sense, Savannah’s storyline ends with her taking control over her own destiny—a destiny in which romantic love is optional.
Like Gloria, Robin’s storyline is marked by a whirlwind of change, and like Savannah, it involves the likelihood of a new child: After Robin kicks Russell out again, she discovers that she is pregnant. In the aftermath of her father’s death, Robin shows some personal growth in her decisions to give up astrology and to raise her baby alone. However, she still clings to old habits in other ways: She chooses not to pay off her student loans with her Christmas bonus and displays a continued desire to see Russell stand up and be a good person even after he refuses responsibility for the baby. Michael continues to come around and support Robin, but she refuses to accept him as a lover. This reflects a realistic understanding of the role that attraction plays a role in a long-term relationship, but it stands in contrast to her unrealistic desires for Russell to be a more stable and committed presence. Nonetheless, Robin finds strength in her friends, knowing that she has the stability of community to lean on as she becomes a parent.
Bernadine’s character arc is marked by her finding her identity and pursuing her own desires. The hard-won settlement check she receives from John is symbolic of her fight to regain her identity after a rocky marriage and contentious divorce. Bernadine not only finds happiness in her relationship with James, but she is determined to use her money to do some good—offering money to both Tarik and Phillip—before spending it on her dream to open her own bakery. Like her three girlfriends, Bernadine finds hope that wasn’t there before.
By the end of the novel, each of the protagonists have found some form of hope that finally allows them to breathe—to exhale. While their respective endings may not be “happily ever after,” each woman finds a “happy for now” ending that suggests better days ahead after many lessons learned.
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