Chap­ter 7 opens with Eve­lyn prepar­ing for a din­ner with Ron­nie Beel­man and sug­gest­ing that the work they’ve been doing can con­tin­ue the fol­low­ing day. The nar­ra­tor, in the process of pack­ing up their things, paus­es for a moment to exchange a brief but mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tion with Eve­lyn. Eve­lyn, who is known for her con­fi­dent demeanor, reas­sures the nar­ra­tor that their progress togeth­er has been sol­id, show­ing her trust in the narrator’s abil­i­ties and set­ting a foun­da­tion of mutu­al respect that will like­ly grow as their pro­fes­sion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion deep­ens.

The scene tran­si­tions to a phone con­ver­sa­tion between the nar­ra­tor and their moth­er. As soon as the call starts, the moth­er imme­di­ate­ly brings up the top­ic of the narrator’s life after David, demon­strat­ing her ongo­ing con­cern about the narrator’s past rela­tion­ship. From the begin­ning, it’s clear that the moth­er had nev­er ful­ly approved of the rela­tion­ship, which adds an under­cur­rent of ten­sion to their con­ver­sa­tion. The mother’s doubts about the depth of the narrator’s con­nec­tion with David are clear, as she ques­tions whether the engage­ment was the right deci­sion. The nar­ra­tor, feel­ing defen­sive, still seems to have some lin­ger­ing doubts about the choice to get engaged to David, and these doubts feel val­i­dat­ed by the way things have turned out. The moth­er’s ear­ly cau­tion about David stands in stark con­trast to the narrator’s cur­rent emo­tion­al strug­gle, mak­ing the con­ver­sa­tion uncom­fort­able yet reveal­ing.

As the con­ver­sa­tion with the moth­er con­tin­ues, the tone shifts to a more light­heart­ed direc­tion. The moth­er men­tions that she’s plan­ning a vis­it, a prospect that fills the nar­ra­tor with both appre­hen­sion and curios­i­ty. While there is a sense of reluc­tance to have the vis­it, the nar­ra­tor acknowl­edges that per­haps it might be ben­e­fi­cial. There’s an under­ly­ing under­stand­ing that, while the vis­it might not be the most fun, it could still offer some val­ue in terms of emo­tion­al clar­i­ty. The nar­ra­tor agrees to the vis­it, albeit reluc­tant­ly, know­ing that it might pro­vide some sense of clo­sure or guid­ance amid the tur­moil they are cur­rent­ly fac­ing. This moment is sig­nif­i­cant because it speaks to the com­plex rela­tion­ship between the nar­ra­tor and their moth­er, a dynam­ic that will like­ly evolve as the sto­ry pro­gress­es.

Next, the nar­ra­tor brings up the pack­age sent by their moth­er, which has yet to arrive. This leads into a dis­cus­sion about Eve­lyn Hugo, and how the nar­ra­tor’s pro­fes­sion­al rela­tion­ship with her has deep­ened. The nar­ra­tor reveals that Eve­lyn has sug­gest­ed a change in their pro­fes­sion­al path—recommending that the nar­ra­tor write a book instead of stick­ing with the planned arti­cle for Vivant. This rev­e­la­tion rais­es a few sus­pi­cions, as the nar­ra­tor starts to won­der whether Eve­lyn has a hid­den agen­da or if she is strate­gi­cal­ly posi­tion­ing the nar­ra­tor for a big­ger oppor­tu­ni­ty. The nar­ra­tor, while intrigued by the idea, becomes increas­ing­ly aware of the pos­si­bil­i­ty that Evelyn’s motives might not be entire­ly pure, hint­ing at a more com­pli­cat­ed rela­tion­ship than orig­i­nal­ly thought.

As the chap­ter unfolds, it becomes clear that the nar­ra­tor is caught in the midst of sev­er­al per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al dilem­mas. The com­pli­cat­ed dynam­ics with their moth­er and Eve­lyn bring to the sur­face a mix of emotions—doubt, curios­i­ty, and suspicion—that the nar­ra­tor must nav­i­gate. Mean­while, Evelyn’s actions con­tin­ue to raise ques­tions about her true inten­tions and how much influ­ence she real­ly has over the narrator’s career. This chap­ter hints at the larg­er themes of pow­er, manip­u­la­tion, and ambi­tion that will like­ly play a sig­nif­i­cant role in the unfold­ing sto­ry. As the narrator’s rela­tion­ship with Eve­lyn grows, so does the ten­sion, mak­ing it clear that both their per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al lives are inter­twined in ways that the nar­ra­tor may not ful­ly under­stand yet.