How It All Goes Down
Amy Elliott Dunne—August 17, 2011
- While she knows it's super stalkerish and girly, Amy starts tracking Nick's moods and attitudes toward her by putting red hearts (he loves me) and black squares (he loves me not) on the calendar. After about a year of black squares, she's come up with nine hearts in a row—she wonders if he's had "a change of heart" about her, but decides not to ask him about it. Sometimes marriage means letting the other person open up when they're ready.
- But seriously—for some reason, Nick's going all out. He's sexy at unexpected times, orders her chocolates straight from New York, and writes her cute poems; he takes her for a swim at the pond he went to as a kid and to ride the carousel at the (now defunct) mall.
- Amy's obviously enjoying this, but secretly, she's also wondering when the other shoe is going to drop. She thinks that Nick really has ulterior motives, such as wanting a second mortgage for the bar. Instead of wallowing in this possibility though, she decides to crush it under her feet and choose to believe that Nick really has changed for the better. For now.