Ugly Love (Hoover)/Chapter 23

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🚩

Colleen Hoover

Ugly Love. Chapter 23

A reunion without the promise of love

2014

Summary of a Chapter
from the Collection “Ugly Love”

The original takes about 22 minutes to read

Microsummary

Tate and Miles reunited, but Corbin discovered their relationship. Miles denied any future love, and Tate agreed to continue without false hope. Later, she and Cap shared a joke at Dillon’s expense.

Chapter Summary

Tate missed Miles after three weeks without seeing him. She had worked through Christmas, passed New Year’s, and started another semester. At home, she comforted herself with chocolate while waiting for her study partners.

Chad arrived alone because Tarryn had been called to work. Miles opened his door across the hall and saw them together. When Chad offered privacy by announcing he would wait in Tate’s bedroom, Miles withdrew. Tate felt guilty despite knowing she owed him no explanation.

Tate and Chad spent three hours studying and sharing notes. After Chad left, Miles entered and questioned her about him. Tate angrily rejected his right to interfere in her life, but reassured him that she had neither slept with nor kissed Chad.

Miles admitted he did not know what to do about wanting her and asked her to make him leave. Tate could not send him away. Although he warned that he could offer nothing more, they resumed their sexual relationship.

During their intimacy, Tate found herself reading emotional meaning into his sustained eye contact. She knew she wanted more than their arrangement allowed. Afterward, Miles worried about Corbin’s return and prepared to leave, inviting her over later.

They discovered that Corbin, Tate’s brother, was already home and had heard them. He demanded to know whether Miles loved Tate or planned to. Miles answered negatively, hurting Tate despite confirming what she already knew.

Corbin ordered Miles out after Miles defended Tate’s adulthood. Furious at her brother’s interference and wounded by Miles’s answers, Tate followed Miles across the hall. They acknowledged that his friendship with Corbin would probably change.

Miles apologized for his answers and his jealous questioning. He said he never wanted to love anyone again, although he wanted Tate and enjoyed being with her. Tate took encouragement from his distinction between rejecting love generally and rejecting her personally.

They agreed to keep their arrangement simple and end it if it became too difficult. Tate asked him not to give her false hope of a future. She denied that he already had, concealing her feelings. Miles promised not to offer hope, and she outwardly welcomed the promise.

Later, Tate told Cap that Corbin had discovered the relationship. Dillon entered the lobby and rudely dismissed Cap’s help with the elevator. Tate answered Dillon’s obvious question sarcastically, and Cap supported her. After Dillon left, they shared a high-five.

Characters

📚

Tate — narrator, young adult woman balancing school and work, Corbin’s sister and Miles’s neighbor and sexual partner; assertive about her independence but deeply attached to Miles and aware that she conceals her hopes.

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Miles Archer — young adult man living across the hall, Tate’s sexual partner and Corbin’s friend; briefly described with stubble, intensely jealous yet unwilling to promise love, and apologetic about the pain and confusion he causes.

🛡️

Corbin — adult man, Tate’s brother and housemate and Miles’s friend; protective and confrontational, he becomes furious on discovering that Miles is sleeping with his sister without intending to love her.

📝

Chad — young adult male student, Tate’s classmate and study-group friend; considerate about giving her privacy and uneasy after witnessing Miles’s reaction to his visit.

🛗

Cap — elderly man who assists residents with the building’s elevator, Tate’s confidant and ally; humorous and outspoken, he shares her dislike of Dillon’s rude behavior.

Quotes

I’ll never love anyone again. It’s not worth it to me. But I’m being unfair to you. I know I’m messing with your head, and I know I’ve hurt you, and I’m sorry for that.

I’m lying to him, and I’m lying to myself, and I’m not doing either of us any good, but I can’t stop the words that come out of my mouth.

Every single one of his admissions should be a red flag, since they were all also coupled with the hard truth that he doesn’t plan on loving me or having a relationship with me, but the red flag doesn’t rise.

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