Ugly Love (Hoover)/Chapter 1

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Colleen Hoover

Ugly Love. Chapter 1

Tate's arrival turns into an encounter with a devastated neighbor

2014

Summary of a Chapter
from the Collection “Ugly Love”

The original takes about 26 minutes to read

This summary needs a microsummary of 190—200 characters.

Chapter Summary

Tate, twenty-three, drove from San Diego to San Francisco to stay with her brother, Corbin, while pursuing a master's degree in nursing and finding work. His luxurious downtown apartment building surprised her.

In the lobby, an elderly employee named Samuel, known as Cap, joked that her birthmark revealed how she had died in a past life. He called himself the elevator's flight captain and already knew her destination.

A married man joined Tate in the elevator, concealed his wedding ring, and stared at her cleavage. She refused his help and pressed several floor buttons to hide where she lived. His farewell revealed that he knew her name.

At apartment 1816, Tate found a drunken stranger asleep against Corbin's door. Corbin was away until morning, so she called him. He explained that airline employees lived in the building and offered to have Cap accompany her inside.

Tate instead tried to move the stranger while keeping Corbin on the phone. The man grabbed her ankle and tried to enter. Frightened, she slammed the door on his wrist, freed herself, and locked him out.

She then realized that her suitcase, purse, and apartment key remained outside. Corbin called his neighbor Miles for help, only to discover that Miles was the drunken man. He asked Tate to let Miles sleep inside.

Reluctantly, Tate dragged Miles into the apartment and retrieved her belongings. She placed a pillow under his head and rolled him onto his side. The spacious apartment impressed her, though Corbin's almost-empty refrigerator did not.

While preparing for bed, Tate recalled Corbin's protectiveness after his friend Blake had cheated on her during a brief teenage relationship. Her latest relationship had ended because her boyfriend wanted her at home while she wanted a career. She now intended to avoid relationships.

Returning to the living room, Tate found Miles unsteady on a kitchen stool and helped him to the couch. He pulled her toward him, called her Rachel, and begged her not to leave. When she pulled away, she discovered that he was crying intensely.

Tate stayed to comfort him as he apologized to Rachel and said she hated him. She held his hand until he slept, noticed a scar along his jaw, and stroked his hair. Although she knew nothing about Rachel or what had happened, she believed his remorse showed that he loved her.

Characters

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Tate — narrator, 23-year-old woman pursuing a master's degree in nursing and applying for RN positions; Corbin's younger sister, with brown eyes, hazelnut hair, and a birthmark below her ear; independent, witty, career-focused, and compassionate despite her reluctance to become involved in others' problems.

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Miles — young adult man living across the hall from Corbin; wears jeans and a black T-shirt, has brown-blond hair and a faint jagged scar along his right jaw; severely intoxicated, physically intrusive, and later visibly devastated, mistaking Tate for Rachel while crying and apologizing.

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Corbin — 25-year-old man, a pilot and Tate's older brother; owner or resident of the apartment where she temporarily stays, and Miles's neighbor; protective, bossy, and concerned for his sister, whom he assists by telephone while away.

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Samuel (Cap) — elderly man whom Tate estimated to be at least eighty, with a curved posture and shaky stance; longtime former maintenance worker who now operates the elevator button, humorously styling himself a flight captain; friendly toward Tate and fond of morbid jokes.

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Married elevator passenger — young man appearing no older than his late twenties, with dark thick eyebrows and an attractive face and body; hides his wedding-ring hand, stares at Tate's cleavage, and persists in offering help despite her rejection; knows her name without introducing himself.

Quotes

What he didn’t realize is that God gave me a lot of great things to accomplish in my life, and right now, I’m so far behind I ain’t *ever*gonna die.

I lived with my most recent boyfriend for more than a year before we realized we wanted two separate things out of life. He wanted me home. I wanted a career.

This guy may deserve every single bit of the remorse he’s feeling for whatever he did to Rachel, but at least he’s feeling it. I have to give him that much.

This summary is based on the UK edition of the novel (London: Simon & Schuster UK, 2014).