When we last left off, Henry and Alex finally laid it all out on the table with each other and are back together THANK GOD.

Onto, Chapter 11!

Entry 15, y’all!

-Pg 292:

This is my favorite chapter: 100% love letters

-Pg. 293:

“I am absolutely the Han and you are absolutely the Leia.”

Yes I was deeply into the new trilogy at the time this book was written.

-Pg. 293:

“I’ll be over here, still quarantined in the White House (at least Mom didn’t kill me for London), rooting for you.”

This is such an important part of their relationship–believing in and rooting for each other. 

-Pg. 293:

“With me it is quite stark: I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal.”

Originally this was a longer excerpt but apparently there are legal limits on the percentage of a quote you can use from things written after 1900.

-Pg. 294:

“The Mail will write mad speculations about where I’ve gone, if I’ve offed myself or vanished to St. Kilda.”

I googled most isolated Scottish archipelago for this.

-Pg. 294:

“Please do keep me in your–what is it Americans say?–thoughts and prayers.”

So much of their dynamic is dunking on each other’s countries and I love that for them.

-Pg. 295:

“Tell me you still have posters up. Let me guess: Han Solo, Barak Obama, and…Ruth Bader Ginsburg.”

He did not have a Han Solo poster but he did have the movie replica blaster.

-Pg. 295:

“I need your help picking a new bed for my room; I’ve decided to get rid of that gold monstrosity.”

Symbolism! Growth!

-Pg. 296:

“I’m gonna ask Zahra to have one of our people put together a binder on it.”

Sometimes he truly is his mother’s son. 

-Pg. 296:

“I’m there for whatever you decide you want to do, just, like, let me know if I need to start practicing gazing wistfully out the window, waiting for my love to return from the war.”

Big growth for Alex: sitting back to let Henry decide what he wants to do. 

-Pg. 296:

“And I’m there, using up your shampoo and making you come to the grocery store with me and waking up in the same damn time zone with you every morning.”

When Alex goes to NYU, this is basically how their life is. 

-Pg. 298:

“Prince Henry of Wales. He died as he lived: avoiding plans and sucking cock.”

Arguably the most vulgar line of book and Henry of all people says it. 

-Pg. 299:

“I’ve eaten a tremendous amount of Jaffa Cakes about it, to be frank.”

#mood

-Pg. 300

“But the first time I saw you. Rio. I took that down to the gardens.”

Henry & Alex remember Rio so differently–to Alex it was a bad first impression but to Henry it was a near-miss of a major catastrophe and the beginning of a distant crush that would follow him for years. 

Pg. 300:

“When you kissed me in disgusting public toilets and pouted in hotel bars and made me happy in ways in which it had never even occurred to me that a mangled-up, locked-up person like me could be happy, I loved you.”

A big part of falling in love for Henry was realizing his life hadn’t broken him. 

-Pg. 302:

“Sometimes I feel like a funny-looking rock in the middle of the most beautiful clear ocean when I read the kinds of things you write to me.”

Love this Alex line–it’s so graceless and honest, and for once admitting a shortcoming doesn’t hurt. 

-Pg. 303:

“9. How hard you try.
10. How hard you’ve always tried.
11. How determined you are to keep trying.”

So few people have recognized this in Henry–least of all Alex in the beginning. 

-Pg. 303:

“17. Your equally huge dick.”

It’s definitely above average.

-Pg. 303:

“I keep thinking about that last one ever since you told me, and what an idiot I was. It’s so hard to me to get out of my own head sometimes, but now I’m coming back to what I said to you the night in my room when it all started, and how I brushed you off when you offered to let me go after the DNC, how I used to try to act like it was nothing sometimes. I didn’t even know what you were offering to do to yourself. God, I want to fight everyone who’s ever hurt you, but it was me too, wasn’t it? All that time. I’m so sorry.”

This isn’t just romantic but a big character graf from Alex because we see him taking responsibility for how his actions affect others. 

-Pg. 277:

“It’s time, he realizes, to start accepting only what Henry can give him.”

This is a HUGE moment for Alex–Henry’s words actually got through to him and he’s expanding his worldview and view of their relationship in kind. 

-Pg. 304:

“Please stay gorgeous and strong and unbelievable. I miss you I miss you I miss you I love you. I’m calling you as soon as I send this, but i know you like to have these things written down.

A”

So much generosity of emotion here–a big thing for Alex. 

We’re nearing the end, y’all…only four chapters left!!