Afterglow

Afterglow
(Book-exclusive)
Published	August 3, 2017 (2017-08-03)
Page count	8
Major characters	Paulo, Rachel
Locations	Rachel’s house
Collected in	Volume Five
Appears between
← Class of 2008 Guest of Honor →

Afterglow is a book-exclusive chapter appearing in Bittersweet Candy Bowl: Volume Five. Rachel and Paulo’s friends-with-benefits arrangement has always been strictly for fun, but in the quiet after their latest round, Rachel finally admits how she really feels about him.

Synopsis

The chapter opens in Rachel’s bed, immediately after sex. Rachel sprawls out, ecstatic (“I LOVE GETTING RAMMED”), while a steaming, exhausted Paulo manages a strained thumbs-up. She teases him about going again, then reassures him it was great and takes credit for training him so well. Paulo insists he needed no training, and Rachel’s playful refusal to confirm it has him sitting bolt upright and yelling.

Rachel hugs Paulo from behind and says she’s just happy “the bitch is gone” and that she has him all to herself. Paulo goes quiet, so Rachel hurriedly clarifies that she meant Tess. He says he knows, but remains troubled.

Still holding him, Rachel says “I love you, you know.” She tries to soften it right away, calling it inevitable, saying she’s been playing with fire and that he should be flattered. She also admits she’d held out hope that one day, maybe. Paulo, blindsided, insists he really likes her too, but he thought she wanted to have fun, not get married. He asks whether the arrangement sucks for her, starts to say he doesn’t think he can, and never finishes the sentence.

Flustered, Paulo gets up and starts apologizing, wondering aloud if the whole thing is a mistake. Rachel grabs his arm before he can go anywhere. After some fumbling for words, she plasters on a grin and takes it all back, insisting she’s just being emotional, just “silly ol’ afterglow Rachel”, and that there’s nothing to worry about. She hugs him and declares him a good lay and a good guy, which pleases Paulo right up until he registers that she only said “good”. The chapter ends some time later in a kitchen, where Rachel stands alone clutching a mug, looking down with her worry written all over her face.

Character dynamics

Rachel laughs the whole thing off, more or less convincingly.

• Rachel and Paulo: Their friends-with-benefits arrangement has become lopsided, and this is the chapter where Rachel finally says so out loud. Rachel is the experienced one who did the teaching, and also the one who fell in love along the way. She’d come close to admitting it twice before, telling him “you make it hard not to love you” in Take Heart and cutting herself off mid-confession in Small Fry. Paulo genuinely likes her, but he signed up for fun and can’t offer her more than that. Rachel keeps the arrangement going for now by stopping Paulo from leaving and insisting everything is fine. On the final page, she stands alone and visibly unhappy.

Trivia & observations

• The bonus chapters are fully canon. Asked directly whether they count, Veronica answered “Yes!”, and Oliver pointed to the “hundreds of pages of canon comics like ‘Afterglow’” in the books.
• The chapter takes its name from Rachel’s own line, when she brushes her confession off as the work of “silly ol’ afterglow Rachel”.
• When Rachel clarifies that she “meant Tess of course”, the chapter never says who else Paulo might have thought she meant. In Study Buddy, however, he wakes up beside her whispering “I’m so sorry Lucy”.

Related chapters

• Back and Forth: The arrangement began here, with a drive-in date that ended in the backseat. Rachel’s “I trained you well” teasing revives the same smug routine she pulled right after their first time, when she joked that it had “just been a while since I bagged a virgin!”
• Small Fry: At another drive-in visit, Rachel apologizes for how their dating began and gets as far as “I don’t want to fall in love with you, but I..” before stopping herself. In “Afterglow”, she finally tells Paulo outright that she loves him.
• Class of 2008: Tess graduates in the chapter immediately before this one, which is where “the bitch is gone” comes from. Rachel hollers “HEY BITCH” down the hall at her, then admits she was only kidding and wishes her luck.
• Unspoken Rule: Rachel is the one who eventually ends the arrangement, on the day Lucy comes back to school. She waves Paulo off with “It’s not like we’re together.” and, much like this chapter’s ending, only lets herself cry once nobody is around to see it.