Chapter 25: 22. Romantic Gestures

Spoiler Notice: This analysis contains detailed plot spoilers for Chapter 25 of A Novel Love Story. Read the chapter first if you prefer to avoid them.

Summary

Eileen and Anders eat tacos at a hole-in-the-wall joint on Four Shadow Street. He reveals he has a sister in Manitoba studying belugas, and they banter about his fictional grumpy persona. Anders insists he doesn’t judge anyone’s favorite books—except self-help business guru titles, a surprisingly specific distaste.

After the meal, Anders leads Eileen in a trespass onto the clock tower, climbing in the dark to the bell chamber. They don earplugs just as the clock strikes nine. The nine gongs shatter the quiet; Eileen startles and clings to Anders, feeling her bones vibrate. She emerges with a humming aliveness, and from the arches they watch the town sprawl out in sunset purples and pinks. Anders says he’s never brought anyone else.

Later, on a park bench, they share taffy and talk about New York. Anders paints a vivid picture of autumn in the city—walking from Union Square to Washington Square Park with a dirty chai—and misses it. Eileen admits she almost took a teaching job there after her breakup but ran from the risk. When he presses what she’d do if she could do anything, she imagines a small romance-only bookstore, the Grand Romantic, with events that make people believe in love again. Anders calls it a good dream and says he’d be first in line.

Anders then confesses that he already lived his dream: he reviewed novels for the New York Times, especially thrillers and sometimes romance. But something changed after a split, and now stories don’t feel the same. He admits he thought being around Eileen—someone who exudes happiness in Eloraton—might help him rediscover joy. Eileen threads her fingers through his, but when the moment teeters toward a kiss, she kisses his cheek instead. She feels she is stealing romantic moments meant for his fictional destined love.

She leaves him, then secretly follows when he walks to the graveyard of deleted things. From behind the iron gate, she watches him sit on the fountain and make a warm phone call, smiling in a way he’s never smiled at her. Her phone vibrates with a text from Pru: “HE PROPOSED!!” Eileen tries to reply, but the message goes unsent—a service fluke, or perhaps tied to the strange courtyard. She returns to the loft, unsettled, and doesn’t fall asleep until Anders comes back half an hour later.

Key Events

Eileen and Anders share tacos and playful banter about his grumpy bookstore-owner persona.
Anders reveals he has a sister who studies belugas in Manitoba.
He admits his one bookish pet peeve: bald, middle-aged-white-guy self-help business books.
The two trespass into the clock tower and witness the nine-o’clock bell toll from the bell chamber, a visceral, shared secret.
On a park bench, Anders describes his beloved autumn New York; Eileen shares that she almost took a job there but ran away.
Eileen invents her dream bookstore, the Grand Romantic, dedicated to romance novels and weekly book clubs.
Anders reveals he was a New York Times reviewer who has lost his ability to enjoy books since a personal fallout.
Rather than kiss him, Eileen gives Anders a gentle kiss on the cheek and departs.
She follows him to the graveyard of deleted things, where he makes an affectionate late-night phone call.
A text from Pru about a proposal arrives, but Eileen’s reply fails to send—only her second service anomaly in Eloraton.

Character Development

Eileen: She begins to voice her deferred dream (the Grand Romantic) for the first time, exposing the gap between her settled life and her true passion. She identifies her pattern of running—from New York, from intimacy—and explicitly frames herself as outside Anders’s story, as if she’s usurping a heroine’s moments. Her decision to follow Anders shows her curiosity overriding her restraint, underscoring her hunger to understand this world.
Anders: The chapter peels back his grumpy exterior. He shares fragments of his past life (the city, the reviewing job) and reveals a profound loss: he can no longer enjoy books. His confession that he hoped Eileen’s happiness might be contagious is his most vulnerable moment yet. The mysterious, smiling phone call complicates him further, suggesting a relationship or history that makes Eileen a genuine outsider.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Romantic Gestures and Trespass: The stolen climb to the bell tower is a quintessential grand romantic gesture, but it’s framed as a shared secret, not a formal date. The physical trespass echoes the larger trespass of Eileen existing in a fictional world.
Fiction vs. Reality: Eileen repeatedly tells herself that Anders has a written love interest and that she is stealing moments that belong to someone else. This tension drives her to pull back from intimacy.
The Resonance of the Bell: The nine tolls are a sensory symbol of being jolted alive—for Eileen, a moment of pure presence that contrasts with her usual guardedness.
The Unsent Message: Pru’s text about a proposal—a real-world joy—reaches Eileen just as she spies on the fictional Anders’s phone call. The failure to reply underscores her liminal state between worlds and hints that the rules of Eloraton’s service may be tied to specific locations or emotional thresholds.
Books and Passion: Anders’s loss of reading pleasure mirrors the underlying fear Eileen has: that she, too, has lost something vital and is merely going through the motions of her life.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter cements the central romantic tension and introduces the story’s deepest conflict. It moves the relationship beyond antagonistic banter into genuine tenderness, while simultaneously reinforcing the barrier Eileen believes exists—the book’s “real” heroine. Anders’s disclosure that he’s creatively dead inside raises the stakes for his own arc, and his late-night call suggests that Eloraton’s magic might involve someone else entirely. Eileen’s unsent text and her decision to spy leave her isolated, caught between the real world’s happiness and a fictional dream she fears she can’t keep.

Study Questions and Answers

How does the clock tower scene function as a romantic gesture, and why does Eileen think she is “stealing all his heroine’s moments”?
The illegal climb, the earplugs, and the shared secret of the nine tolls are intimate and choreographed—a classic romantic beat. Eileen believes the town and Anders himself were written for a specific love interest Rachel Flowers created, so any connection she makes with him feels like something she’s taking from that intended story.
What does Eileen’s dream of opening “The Grand Romantic” reveal about her desires and fears?
The bookstore dream shows her deep love for romance novels and community, and it exposes a latent ambition she never pursued. But she immediately dismisses it as impractical, revealing the fear that she’s not good enough and the habit of settling for “just fine” rather than risking failure.
What is the significance of the unsent text message at the end, and how might it relate to the rules of Eloraton’s fictional world?
Eileen’s reply to Pru fails to send despite her earlier connectivity. The anomaly suggests that the courtyard near the graveyard (or the emotional state of being out of sync with the town) may allow or block real-world signals. It reinforces the idea that Eloraton operates by narrative logic, not physical laws, and that Eileen’s place in it is conditional.

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