In Chap­ter Ten, titled “Teal,” the pro­tag­o­nist finds her­self in a con­found­ing sit­u­a­tion at Nova’s house. While ini­tial­ly brought to bor­row clothes, it becomes clear that this was also a gath­er­ing with Nova’s friends, Hol­ly and Maren. The atmos­phere in the kitchen is friend­ly and famil­ial as the girls push for details about the pre­vi­ous night with Bran­thor. Teal explains that they slept apart because Bran­thor refus­es to sign the mar­riage con­tract, even con­vinc­ing her that he would send her to the Tem­ple if not for Nova’s inter­ven­tion.

Maren dis­miss­es Teal’s con­cerns, sug­gest­ing Bran­thor won’t go through with it. The girls ral­ly sup­port for Teal, assert­ing that Bran­thor is infat­u­at­ed with her despite her skep­ti­cism. Hol­ly and Maren share play­ful anec­dotes, sug­gest­ing that uncon­ven­tion­al actions, like climb­ing a part­ner, could ignite pas­sion. This quirky advice amus­es Teal, spark­ing her imag­i­na­tion about phys­i­cal moves to gain Bran­thor’s affec­tion.

As they dis­cuss, Nova leads the way into her impres­sive walk-in clos­et filled with clothes, reveal­ing new poten­tial for Teal’s wardrobe. The cama­raderie deep­ens as Nova insists on giv­ing her out­fits that she believes Teal will love, promis­ing that their friend­ship means shar­ing is essen­tial. Despite ini­tial hes­i­ta­tion about wear­ing some­thing so reveal­ing, Teal tries on a short, flo­ral dress, which elic­its excit­ed reac­tions from the oth­er women, who encour­age her to wear it to cap­ti­vate Bran­thor.

Upon Bran­thor’s arrival, his reac­tion to Teal in the dress is imme­di­ate and pro­found, as he seems momen­tar­i­ly lost for words. The chap­ter bal­ances play­ful ban­ter with the seri­ous­ness of Teal’s predica­ment, por­tray­ing her inner con­flict regard­ing her rela­tion­ship with Bran­thor. Teal longs for affec­tion but ends up ques­tion­ing the like­li­hood of their union, reveal­ing her uncer­tain­ty about the future as she heads out­side with him, pon­der­ing whether she tru­ly has any influ­ence over his feel­ings or if her time may already be run­ning out.