Chapter 7 Summary: What Happens at 10:00 a.m.

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Chapter 7 opens at 10:00 a.m. with Nina pulling into the parking lot of Riva's Seafood, the family restaurant once known as Pacific Fish. The building is faded and peeling, but it has become a Malibu institution—the children who once came with their parents now bring their own children. Nina glances at the sign and wonders whether it's time to have it redone.

She enters through the kitchen, keeping her sunglasses on longer than usual—a small shield she's been reaching for more often lately. She only takes them off when she sees Ramon, the restaurant's manager. Ramon is thirty-five, married for over a decade, and the father of five. He started as a fry cook and worked his way up, running Riva's Seafood since 1979. Their exchange is warm and familiar, full of easy banter.

Nina then braces herself and steps outside to greet customers. As she moves into the sunlight, she feels a false version of herself come to life—an exaggerated smile, a wave, a cheerful greeting. A teenage boy rushes toward her with a rolled-up poster of her surfing in a bikini and a Sharpie. She signs it, writing a legible “Nina R.” in the top right corner, a routine she's performed countless times. The boy asks for a photo, and his parents approach with a Polaroid. He sidles up beside her, trying to put his arm around her shoulders. Nina smiles for the camera while inching away, having perfected the art of standing close without touching.

As the family examines the developing photo, the boy's father reaches out and smooths his hand over the side of her T-shirt, grazing her ribs and hips. He whispers the tagline from her recent SoftSun Tees advertisement: “Just wanted to see for myself that it's soft to the touch.” It's the third time a man has used that line since the ad launched.

Nina grins insincerely and retreats to the kitchen. The chapter then reveals the backstory of that advertisement. She posed for it at the top of the year—her biggest payday to date. In the ad, she wore red bikini bottoms and a threadbare white T-shirt, wet hair, hips jutted to one side. The image was suggestive, and she knew that was why they wanted her. But the tagline—See for yourself, it's soft to the touch—was added without her knowledge, placed directly under her breasts. It invited a level of intimacy she never agreed to.

Back in the kitchen, Ramon tells her she doesn't have to greet every customer. Nina wishes that were true. She asks to go over the books, and they retreat to the office. The restaurant is doing okay, but Nina worries about the off-season. Last winter was brutal; she had to inject her own cash into the business in January, as she's done several times before. She's pulled the restaurant out of the red, but she fears it will slip back once the tourists dry up.

The chapter closes with Nina's quiet resolve: she loves the staff, the regulars, and Ramon. She is not going to be the one, three generations in, to let Riva's Seafood fail.

Key Events

Nina arrives at Riva's Seafood and enters through the kitchen, greeting Ramon, who has managed the restaurant since 1979.
She goes outside to mingle with customers, signing a surfing poster for a teenage boy and posing for a Polaroid photo.
The boy's father touches her side and repeats the SoftSun Tees tagline, the third time a man has done so since the ad launched.
Nina reflects on the ad campaign: her biggest payday, a suggestive photo, and a tagline added without her consent.
She reviews the restaurant's finances with Ramon, revealing that she subsidized the business with her own money in January.
The chapter ends with Nina's determination not to let the family restaurant fail on her watch.

Character Development

Nina — This chapter deepens our understanding of Nina's daily reality as a celebrity. She moves through the world with a practiced performance: the exaggerated smile, the wave, the signature, the photo. She has learned to stand close without touching, a small act of self-preservation. Her discomfort with the father's touch is palpable, and her reflection on the SoftSun Tees ad reveals a woman who has made peace with being desired but not with being owned. The chapter also shows her practical side: she is hands-on with the restaurant's finances, worried about the off-season, and quietly determined to keep the business alive. Her question—how her father tolerated the attention—adds a layer of generational comparison, though she notes that people didn't touch him the way they touch her.

Ramon — Though a supporting character, Ramon emerges as a steady, loyal presence. He is competent, warm, and protective of Nina, telling her she doesn't have to greet everyone. His long tenure at the restaurant and his easy rapport with Nina suggest he is both an employee and a trusted ally.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Objectification and Unwanted Physical Contact — The father's touch is the chapter's most visceral moment. He feels entitled to Nina's body because an advertisement invited him to. The tagline, placed under her breasts, turned her into an object to be inspected. Nina's internal reaction—grinning insincerely, retreating—shows how women in the public eye are expected to absorb such violations with grace.

Public vs. Private Identity — Nina's sunglasses, her false smile, and her perfected distance from fans all point to a split between who she is and who she performs. The chapter shows the toll of that performance: she is always on, always available, always smiling.

Celebrity Entitlement — The boy's father doesn't ask; he touches. The boy doesn't ask if he can put his arm around her; he does. Nina reflects that the more she poses, the more people show up wanting her photo, her signature, her smile, her attention, her body. The sense of ownership people feel over her is something she hasn't figured out how to handle.

Family Legacy Burden — Riva's Seafood is three generations old. Nina's determination not to let it fail is not just about money; it's about identity and inheritance. The restaurant is a tangible link to her family's past, and she refuses to be the one who breaks that chain.

Modeling as Subsidy — Nina uses her modeling income to keep the restaurant afloat, a bitter irony: she poses for ads that invite objectification, and the money from those ads pays for a restaurant where people come to take her photo and often don't even buy a soda.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter is a turning point in how we understand Nina's interior life. It grounds her celebrity in the mundane realities of running a family business, and it shows the cost of her public persona in visceral, uncomfortable detail. The SoftSun Tees ad becomes a symbol of how Nina's body is commodified without her full consent—the tagline added without her knowledge, the touch it invites, the line men feel entitled to use on her.

The chapter also establishes the restaurant as a central anchor of Nina's identity. Her financial anxiety and her fierce resolve to keep Riva's Seafood alive reveal a woman carrying the weight of her family's legacy. This context will matter as the novel moves toward the fateful party at the end of the book.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does the SoftSun Tees advertisement function as a symbol in this chapter?

The advertisement represents the commodification of Nina's body. She posed for a suggestive photo knowing that was part of the job, but the tagline—added without her knowledge and placed under her breasts—crossed a line she never agreed to. The ad becomes a recurring violation: men repeat the tagline to her, and one man uses it as justification for touching her. It symbolizes how Nina's consent is bypassed at every level, from the ad campaign itself to the strangers who feel entitled to her body.

2. What does Nina's management of the restaurant reveal about her character?

Nina is deeply responsible and quietly determined. She reviews the books with Ramon, worries about the off-season, and has repeatedly injected her own money to keep the restaurant afloat. Her love for the staff and regulars, and her refusal to be the one to let the restaurant fail, show that her commitment to family legacy outweighs the financial burden. It also reveals a woman who is practical and grounded, in contrast to the glamorous public image she projects.

3. How does the chapter contrast Nina's experience of fame with her father's?

Nina wonders how her father tolerated the attention, but she notes a crucial difference: people didn't touch him the way they touch her. This observation highlights the gendered nature of celebrity. Her father's fame likely came with adoration; Nina's comes with a sense of ownership that manifests in physical contact. The contrast underscores how women in the public eye face a unique form of objectification that their male counterparts do not.