59 pages • 1 hour read
Is She Really Going Out with Him?
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Prologue-Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary
Thirty-seven-year-old Anna lives in Bath, England. She is the guest reader for story time at her son Ethan’s school. She reads a fairytale story while the six-year-olds pepper her with questions. Jason vomits on Anna’s shoes, and while cleaning up the restroom, she receives an email from the United Kingdom government confirming the finalization of her divorce from Dan. Anna reels from receiving such life-changing news in such an impersonal way. At the same time, she gets an email from Dan, who is hiking in South America and sent photos for the children.
Anna finishes the story hour, but the trite story of a rescued princess infuriates her. She accuses the book of “[…] perpetuating a damaging narrative of a woman needing to be rescued by a man” (5). She tears up the book and encourages the children to join her in shouting to “smash” patriarchal expectations.
Anna’s younger sister, Lottie, consoles her in the car after Mrs. Hollybush asks Anna not to return as a guest reader and to replace the damaged book. Anna laments that Dan is off exploring Machu Picchu while she’s shouldering all the emotional weight of the divorce. Anna says she never wants to fall in love again, but Lottie encourages her that everything is too fresh right now, and she may feel differently after time has passed.
Chapter 1 Summary
The narrative resumes one year later. Lottie is pregnant and lives in the country with her husband, Seb, but she visits Bath regularly to visit Anna and bring flowers. Lottie wants Anna to meet a client, Fergus, a pecan farmer. Anna insists she is doing fine despite recently learning that Dan is dating much younger women. Lottie encourages Anna to get out more, but Anna says she is in her “hibernation era.” Anna despises how married people think divorcees should bounce back into dating life, incapable of functioning on their own. Lottie says Anna doesn’t have to get into a relationship but can join the apps and have fun. She asks about Anna’s widower neighbor, Noah, who Anna claims is too young and conceited. Lottie asks about Anna’s coworker, Will Havers, but Anna says he “mansplains” and dates much younger women.
Chapter 2 Summary
Anna walks to work at Bath Living, where she writes a lifestyle column. Will joins her on the walk and, though he’s only worked at the magazine for six months, critiques her latest column, calling it “dull” and offering advice for improving its appearance on the page. Anna is used to Will’s ego and reminds him she is older and has more experience. Their sparring intensifies as Will criticizes the proofreading errors in Anna’s column, and she accuses him of not being a “team player.”
The magazine owner, Jonathan, calls a meeting to inform the team that, due to lagging revenue, he is taking on outside investors who want to reorganize the publication to appeal to a younger audience. Jonathan reveals that the change comes because of Will’s input. Knowing this will mean staff changes, Anna is worried since her post-divorce finances have been complicated. She meets with Jonathan to discuss her future, and he says he is giving her column to Will since Will’s work is more popular with younger readers. In desperation, Anna pitches writing a dating column where she will go on dates and write about her experience. Jonathan says their readers will “[…] relate to the challenge of looking for love again after heartbreak, to being on the wrong side of thirty-five and leaping back into the dating pool […]” (25).
Will apologizes to Anna for his harsh critique of her column, but Anna only cares about bragging about her pitch, which is a clear challenge to Will because he can’t have her column. Will cracks a joke about dating being overwhelming for her, but Anna is unmoved. She digs about his previous work at Teen Girl magazine, something she knows will embarrass him, and Will backs off. Anna begins work immediately by joining a dating app.
Chapter 3 Summary
Anna never had a blind date since all her relationships evolved from friendships with men. She invites Kelly and Steph from work out for drinks and enlists their help setting up her dating app profile. However, Anna immediately finds all the questions too personal, calling the process “[…] the most invasive and bizarre job interview she’s ever had” (31). Kelly and Steph insist the photo is the most essential part and suggest posting a bikini shot and using a filter, but Anna wants to look like herself. Before leaving the bar, Anna already had one “like” on her profile, and soon, the notifications began pouring in. All the potential prospects overwhelm Anna, but her mind quickly shifts to Dan, and she wonders if he met his current girlfriend, Sylvie, on the app.
Chapter 4 Summary
Anna is on her third date since joining Bumble. The first two didn’t go well, but this date isn’t as bad. However, Richard seems different in person than when they chatted online. Richard forgets her name and brags that he is so busy with his job and weight training that he uses artificial intelligence to chat with women on the apps. Anna concedes that online dating is a miserable experience and will be alone indefinitely.
Anna returns home, where Lottie watches the children and declares no more online dating. Jess comes downstairs and shares her problems with a classmate named Penny. When Ethan calls to Anna from bed, she discovers he had an accident, something that’s been happening since the divorce. Ethan is ashamed and, though Anna explains that accidents happen, Ethan says Dan gets mad when he wets the bed. Anna tells the children she’s dating for a work project. The children begin suggesting people that Anna should date, including their friend Tilly’s recently divorced dad. Lottie jokes that they should pick her dates since they know her so well. Ethan reveals that Sylvie has moved in with Dan. Later, as Anna crawls into an empty bed, she scrolls through Dan and Sylvie’s social media, staring at photos of them together. Sylvie is in her twenties and looks like “[…] a young, Swedish Gwyneth Paltrow […]” (43). Anna looks at Will Haver’s WhatsApp profile picture and then deletes her profile picture.
Chapter 5 Summary
Anna calls Dan and tells him not to chastise Ethan for wetting the bed. Dan says she “babies” Ethan. Anna also expresses her discontent with him for not telling her about Sylvie. Dan claims he doesn’t owe her explanations because it’s been over a year since their divorce, and she needs to “move on” just as he’s done. At the office, Will comments that she looks “stressed” because she’s pulling her hair, something he’s noticed she does often. Anna is embarrassed that Will has seen the hair-pulling habit she has developed since the divorce. She’d hoped she’d been concealing it and the resulting bald spots. Will asks how the new column is going, and Anna lies, claiming it’s going well. Will asks her for dinner as he’s trying a new restaurant for a column. Anna wonders if it’s a date, but Will insists it’s for work. Anna says she can’t, and the invitation confuses her.
Though Anna is proud of the column she wrote about AI’s effects on modern dating, Jonathan says it’s too “bleak” and that she needs to be more “vulnerable” with her readers. Jonathan doesn’t understand what it’s like for Anna as a single mother carrying the financial and emotional weight of two parents. In desperation, she tells Jonathan her new angle for the column is that instead of using Bumble, the children will choose her dates. Jonathan loves the idea, labeling it “How to find a man in ten dates…chosen by your children […]” (50). Will joins the meeting and suggests he and Anna work on the column together so he can provide a balanced perspective because he still uses dating apps. Anna angrily asserts that she doesn’t need Will’s help for her column to succeed, but Jonathan agrees with Will’s idea. Will asks Anna why she refuses to work with him, and she launches into a tirade about everything she dislikes about him. Despite her anger, Anna feels a spark of energy between them. Will says she can’t hate him for doing his job well and that they must find a way to work together. However, Anna sees this not as a collaboration but as “war.”
Prologue-Chapter 5 Analysis
The prologue introduces Anna at her most vulnerable, as she is trying to be a good mother while simultaneously processing the end of her marriage. This introduces the novel’s thematic exploration of The Challenges of Navigating Life After Divorce. Destroying the book about the princess symbolizes Anna’s rejection of the classic fairy tale narrative of idealized love where a prince saves the day and sweeps a woman off her feet. At the most inopportune moment, Anna recognizes that real-life love is more complicated than the stories fed to children, which perpetuate “[…] a damaging narrative of a woman needing to be rescued by a man” (5). Anna’s intense emotional reaction urging the children to “smash” patriarchal conventions reveals the depth of her heartbreak. Further, it represents her desire to rewrite the narrative of her life and redefine love on her terms instead of waiting for the proverbial prince to save her. In this act of destruction, Anna does not just reject the fairy tale; she also begins to forge a new identity, one that defies the conventional expectations society places on women and love.
Personal and professional uncertainties now fill Anna’s life, which was once predictable. Just as she adjusts to being single, Anna must accept and adapt to the changing corporate climate and the widespread changes in her personal life; in doing so, Cousens establishes the theme of Embracing Change to Achieve Professional and Personal Success. The magazine’s change in ownership and push for content that appeals to a younger demographic threatens Anna’s long-standing column and her self-identification as a journalist. It compels her to reconsider her role, relevance in her career, and life as a woman in her late thirties. The stakes feel higher now, as Anna is no longer just fighting for her job but also struggling for her place in a workplace that values youth and novelty over experience and wisdom. Her boss’s demand for fresh and engaging content doesn’t fit Anna’s current mental health state, as she is feeling neither fresh nor inspired, and she is still in the throes of processing the end of her marriage and navigating being a single mother. Cousens uses Anna comparing herself to other women, specifically Dan’s new partner, Sylvie, who she calls “a young, Swedish Gwyneth Paltrow” (43), to demonstrate the insecurity Anna feels in comparison to younger women and colleagues. In her twenties, Sylvie not only represents how Dan has moved on post-divorce but also how Anna expresses unease at aging. While Anna is looking at Sylvie’s social media—a curated display of one’s appearance and life—she cannot help but compare herself to what Sylvie has (a partner) with her status (divorced and single). In these moments of comparison, the author lays bare Anna’s vulnerability, as she measures herself by her achievements and by the image of perfection that others project digitally.
While Anna deals with the internal tension of the lingering grief over her divorce and her career frustrations, the external tension intensifies when Anna learns that her colleague, Will Havers, is vying for her column. Eight years her junior, Will embodies the youthful perspective the new management desires. This professional rivalry pushes Anna to devise a unique angle to retain her position. The tension between Anna and Will introduces the enemies-to-lovers and forced proximity trope, hallmarks of the romance genre. This foreshadows the connection unfolding as the story progresses. Faced with professional and personal upheavals, Anna’s resilience emerges through her willingness to adapt and reinvent herself to keep the job she loves, even if it means working with her enemy—a partnership she classifies as “war” rather than true collaboration. Anna’s experience with discrimination at work sheds light on societal biases related to age and relevance, specifically the dismissive attitude toward the experiences and contributions of aging women.
The column pitch thrusts Anna into the unfamiliar territory of modern dating. Anna expresses a strong aversion to online dating platforms and dating altogether, evident in describing herself in a “hibernation era.” As she is a Millennial, Anna came of age before dating apps existed. Unlike the younger generation, Anna finds the concept of exposing herself on dating apps uncomfortable and disingenuous. Her distaste for the digital approach to dating is not just about the app itself but also reflects Anna’s deeper longing for a connection that feels more personal. Cousens highlights Anna’s unease as she frames setting up a dating profile as “the most invasive and bizarre job interview she’s ever had” (31). This comparison emphasizes how the process feels forced and cold, akin to presenting one to a prospective employer rather than a romantic partner.
Embarking on her first date, Anna also confronts the realities of dating after the grief and loss surrounding divorce, further developing the challenges of navigating life after divorce. The encounter is filled with awkwardness and self-doubt. This makes Anna trepidatious to re-enter the dating scene in her late thirties. Anna’s first experiences going on dates prove all her fears valid, as the dates are unfulfilling and unsuccessful. Moreover, going on the dates reinforces the false narrative that she is too old, washed up, and too weighed down by her past for anyone to find her attractive. For example, Anna wonders if she is “dead wood,” which reflects the fear Anna feels that she has stagnated romantically and is no longer desirable. Anna’s dating app experiences highlight the disillusionment that can accompany employing technology to search for love. Anna believes that dating apps reduce people to quick judgments based on pictures and short bios, forcing them to evaluate potential matches with a swipe denoting pass or pursue. This mechanical process feels disheartening as Anna imagines finding love as something more organic and spontaneous. Specifically, she yearns for a type of connection that transcends the transactional nature of dating app swipes and matches.
Anna’s experience as a single mother introduces the theme of Balancing the Demands of Motherhood While Pursuing Self-Fulfillment. Her primary focus is on Jess and Ethan’s well-being. The daily demands of parenting, including providing emotional support, managing schedules, and ensuring financial stability are overwhelming and leave her with little time or energy to pursue her happiness, whether in her career advancement or finding a partner. However, through the matchmaking children trope, Anna’s children become a support system and a source of motivation. Anna wants her column to be successful so she can continue to work and provide for her children materially. In this way, Anna’s children are not just bystanders to Anna’s romantic pursuit; rather, they become active participants in her journey to find love. The children choosing Anna’s dates is a plot device to propel the narrative forward and support its broader thematic explorations. Just as Anna wants to ensure her children’s safety and stability, Jess and Ethan want their mother to be happy. Thus, collaborating on Anna’s dating journey is a connecting experience for both mother and children.
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