Watching You: A Novel

Joey doesn’t see Tom for several days. When Alfie requests Joey’s phone to take pictures of the Fitzwilliams’ walls, she offers to do it for him. She experiences a thrill from entering Tom’s private world. She meets Freddie, and Nicola guides her about the house, which is surprisingly shabby inside. The longer she stays, the less Joey likes Nicola, whom she mentally criticizes as racist and small-minded.

Bess continues to miss school, and Jenna struggles to locate her outside of school as well. She tracks her to a friend’s house, and the friend’s parent mentions that Bess was picked up by her father. Jenna knows this can’t be true because Bess doesn’t know her father.

Back in the present, Frances shares her suspicions about Tom. On the night of the murder, Frances was keeping a watchful eye on Tom’s house, convinced that he was holding a meeting with the other members of his “stalking cooperative.”

Nicola spends several consecutive days in loungewear, neglecting her appearance, which Freddie interprets as a clear sign of trouble. From his room, he catches sight of Frances engaged in conversation with a “fat woman” (Rebecca) near the bus stop and takes a picture of it despite the fact that he has mostly stopped taking covert pictures.

Tom arrives at the bus stop and offers Joey a ride. He claims that he has never felt this way before. He suggests they meet in a hotel for one night only and then don’t see each other again. Joey worries about her expected reluctance to stop the affair but eventually agrees.

Joey talks about meeting Tom in the hotel but says she’d rather not say whether they engaged in a physical relationship.

Freddie again talks to Tom about Romola in an affectionate father-son dialogue and reflects that it’s impossible to imagine his father as a villain in these moments. He then asks if Tom has ever had an affair. Tom says no, but Freddie refuses to let the subject drop. Putting together clues from conversations with his mother and with Jenna, he asks if Tom had an affair with a former student, Viva, whose mother attacked him in the Lake District. Tom grows angry, and Freddie detects his father’s “shawl of geniality” (225) slipping.

Freddie seeks Jenna’s advice regarding how to invite Romola to the dance. She’s initially suspicious that this is some sort of prank but is ultimately charmed by Freddie’s awkward but genuine interest. She proposes that he send her a dance invitation via text, so there’s less pressure on the girl. Later at school, she sees Bess exiting Tom’s office, and Jenna is taken aback. Their interaction appears too intimate to her, leaving Jenna unsettled.

Freddie purchases a dress for Romola. He hands it to her personally, tracking her down after school and asking her to the dance. He decided to do the opposite from what Jenna proposed, since he doesn’t want to make it easy for Romola to say no. However, he accepts that rejection is a distinct possibility, philosophically determining that if he ever wants to achieve anything, he’ll have to learn to live with rejection.

Romola, who has Autism Spectrum Disorder, asks if Freddie is also an “Aspie.” Freddie initially says no and wonders why she asks. She explains that several of his actions and mannerisms are associated with the condition. Freddie stares at her in wonder and suddenly retrieves a lost memory of being diagnosed years ago. Afterward, Tom and his mother adopted a wait-and-see approach instead of taking action. He remembers them taking him to lunch after the appointment and Tom telling him that his brain is “remarkable” and that he doesn’t want Freddie to “get hung up on labels and names” (233).

Romola tells Freddie that she will maybe go to the dance with him.

Freddie invites Jenna over. She asks him if he thinks his father could be guilty of sexual misconduct with young girls, and Freddie says that he doesn’t know. He reveals that he suspects his father of beating his mother and admits that he is torn between two mental images of his father. They delve deeper into the Lake District incident, researching Tom’s name and the name of the most likely school. There are many hits but nothing relevant to their purpose. Jenna suggests they add the name Viva, and they instantly get a hit that shocks them.

Joey goes shopping for lingerie for her rendezvous with Tom.

The chapter opens with a short article about the suicide of Genevieve Hart, nicknamed Viva. An unnamed male teacher was questioned over the event after entries in the girl’s diary suggested the possibility of a sexual relationship, but the man was quickly released. The article also reveals Viva’s experience of intense bullying at school and that she cut off all of her hair immediately before dying by suicide.

As they continue to research, they come across pictures of Viva’s family. Freddie recognizes Rebecca from the picture he took of her speaking to Frances but can’t quite identify her. Jenna informs him that the woman isn’t “fat” but rather pregnant, and he realizes that it’s Rebecca, the woman for whom his mother was knitting a baby blanket.

Jenna then pays a visit to Bess and demands to know if she is pregnant with Tom’s child. She claims that Tom might beat his wife and that he was implicated in a teenager’s suicide. Appalled, Bess says that she is not having sex with Tom and would never do so. She couldn’t have a crush on a man who would engage in sex with a minor. Tom has been meeting with Bess to discuss Jenna’s situation. He wanted to know if Bess’s family would be able to house Jenna in case something were to happen to Frances. Jenna asks why Bess flinched when Jenna hugged her after one of Bess’s meetings with Tom. Bess doesn’t remember the incident but does remember her breasts being very sore, which might explain it.

Bess is also not pregnant, but she was briefly worried she might be. A boy ejaculated on her stomach, and, when her period was late, she panicked that some of it had gotten inside her. She didn’t tell Jenna because she knew she was being “stupid” and that Jenna would tell her so. The conversation reconciles the friends completely.

Freddie bursts into Nicola’s room and confronts her about Tom’s (presumed) violence, his buried diagnosis, the incident with Viva, and Nicola’s general subservience. The more he speaks, the more agitated Nicola becomes. She refuses to answer his questions and asks why he is being so terrible. At last, she forcefully shoves him to the ground, knocking the wind out of him, and calls him a “fucking little shit” (256). Shocked, Freddie waits for her to apologize, but Nicola (who doesn’t swear elsewhere in the novel) only stares at him coldly and demands he get “the fuck” out of her room.

When Alfie joins Joey in bed, she feels a preemptive sense of guilt for what she will do with Tom. However, she suddenly realizes that Alfie smells of other women’s perfume.

Freddie feels remorse over his interrogation of Nicola but still hopes his mother will apologize for her abusive behavior. In the kitchen, Freddie talks to Tom about autism. Tom reveals that Freddie was diagnosed as a child, but he never wanted Freddie to be labeled or stigmatized. Freddie confesses that he finds interacting with people difficult and would benefit from extra support. He wants “his label.” Tom readily agrees to speak with his school. Freddie feels a wave of affection and gratitude. He shares details of Nicola’s outburst with Tom, who sympathizes with him. Freddie wants to ask again about Viva but doesn’t.