The Truth About Forever

Macy’s character arc has progressed in a steady forward trajectory up until this point. However, with all journeys to recovery, there comes a fragility to the process. While Macy strongly rebels against her mother’s restriction of her catering job and new friends, her resolve slowly weakens despite her panic. As she notices the team getting along without her in public, she becomes convinced that the hole she left in their lives has already grown over, the pothole easily filled.

At the first sign of Wes acting weird—coincidentally just after Macy had an emotional breakdown about her father—she immediately slides back into old insecurities, believing that his behavior is because she made the mistake of being “too human” by showing messy emotions. When Macy soon after sees Wes meeting up with his recently returned girlfriend, Becky, the unpredictability of the situation gives her the ultimate “gotcha,” and she completely shuts down, reverting to her old habits, which offer no more opportunities for painful surprises. She succumbs to her mother’s grounding and ignores any attempts for Wes to insert himself back into her life. Instead of remaining truthful, like the game that their entire friendship has been built on, Macy lies about her feelings for Wes when he asks her about it. In the span of a few chapters, Macy’s character arc backslides, and she must once again work toward breaking out of her old limiting beliefs.

Despite her regression, there are irreversible changes that have taken place in Macy’s character. When she responds to an email detailing Jason’s interest in reconciling their relationship, she demonstrates how she’s become more confident in herself and uncaring about others’ perceptions of her. These differences are shown more in depth when Jason makes an appearance at Deborah’s gala to discuss his relationship with Macy. When Jason suggests they make a list about their relationship expectations so they can consult it later to solve any issues that arise, Macy doesn’t believe it’ll work. This moment effectively shows the completion of her character arc, with her acceptance that no amount of preparation can account for everything and how, in life, there will always be an inevitable amount of risk. This acceptance needs to be made by Macy alone, without Wes in the picture as a security net to fall back on, because that is the only true way that such change will last.

This section uses the miscommunication trope often seen in romances to introduce tension and delay the novel’s resolution. As Wes and Macy are not together, this trope replaces the third-act breakup often seen in romances, where a couple breaks up over a conflict or miscommunication before resolving their issues in a final—usually over-the-top—declaration of love. Macy makes assumptions about Wes’s interaction with Becky, misunderstanding his intentions, and ultimately pushes him away indefinitely, whereas, without context, Wes is confused by Macy’s behavior and misunderstands her interactions with the recently returned Jason.

With the townhome opening gala rapidly approaching, the narrative highlights Deborah’s character arc and continued internal conflict. Deborah’s avoidance of anything to do with her late husband causes further harm to Macy and Caroline. She isolates Macy from her only sources of happiness, making her miserable and alone; she also forgets about the beach house vacation that Caroline worked so hard for and chooses to prioritize her work over their family. Caroline’s accusation that Deborah “hide[s] […] behind all these plans for houses and townhouses because they’re new and perfect and don’t remind [her] of anything” is the first time Deborah is truly confronted about her coping techniques (319). Until this point, Caroline and Macy have edged around the topic, too afraid to upset the delicate balance of their family. However, in calling Deborah out now, it begins the process of opening Deborah’s eyes to the way her Diverse Manifestations of Grief are in fact negatively impacting everyone around her. Despite all the intense planning that Deborah has lost sleep over for weeks, every aspect of her gala inevitably goes wrong. The situation underscores how no amount of planning or preparation can fully control everything or force it to go perfectly. As the disasters add up and perfecting the event becomes impossible, Deborah must finally drop The Illusion of Perfection and face Embracing the Unpredictability of Life. When everything goes wrong to such a caliber that there is nothing that she, herself, can do to rectify it, she must relinquish her control and lean on Delia’s crew to make the best of a bad situation—the thing they do best.

In the last chapter, there is a mirroring of the memory surrounding the loss of Macy’s father. For so long, she’s avoided her old passion for running because she chose to sleep in and had not been fast enough to catch up with her father and save him from his heart attack. At the end of the novel, despite wanting to sleep in, she is able to successfully catch up with Wes on the beach and have a morning run with him, signifying a complete circle in her grieving journey.