One Day: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Monday, July 15, 1991. Emma and Ian are still working at Caliente Loco. One day, Scott calls Emma into his office and says he’s leaving to go work at an Italian restaurant. He offers to appoint Emma as his replacement. Emma starts crying and isn’t sure why. Embarrassed, she tells Scott she’s just depressed. She says she’ll get Scott an answer tomorrow.

Emma feels like she’s failed in London and considers returning home to her parents. She’s considered other lines of work, like publishing, but there’s a recession and jobs are scarce. She writes a poem about how much she hates nachos. Just then, Ian tells Emma that Dexter has come in to see her and also brought a girl. She tries to send Ian over to wait his table, but Ian says Dexter has asked for her.

When Emma comes over to tell Dexter the specials, he gives her a big hug, which has been his habit ever since he started working in the TV industry. He introduces his friend Naomi, and both of them are clearly drunk. Dexter tries to buy Emma a drink, but she refuses, then he makes a big deal of trying to tip Emma, which embarrasses her.

Dexter leaves the restaurant in Camden Town and goes to Primrose Hill. He has given up photography, knowing it would take too much work to become a master, but television, on the other hand, has a place for him right now. New broadcasting laws have opened the market to independent companies that want to make new, youth-focused programs. Dexter has helped produce short segments and has heard that they might want him in front of a camera someday.

Emma comes to meet Dexter. She gets angry at him for coming in to laugh at her restaurant with his girlfriend. Dexter says Naomi isn’t his girlfriend, although they are having sex. Emma gives Dexter back the money he tipped her, saying you don’t tip friends. Dexter apologizes. He talks about meeting Naomi at a wrap party. Emma zones out—she used to want to be in a relationship with Dexter but now feels numb when he talks about his sex life.

Dexter and Emma talk about a couple sitting near them in the park who are making out aggressively. Emma says Dexter is obsessed with sex. Dexter says Emma should lighten up and take ecstasy with him some time. He asks why she doesn’t go out with Ian sometime, but Emma says Ian is just a friend. Dexter says that if he and Emma are still single at 40, they should marry. Emma says she got the same offer from Ian, only for age 35, although personally she never plans to marry.

Emma says there are more important things in life than relationships. Dexter jokingly asks if she wants to focus on her restaurant career. He says maybe he could get her a job at his media company, unpaid at first, but Emma rejects the idea. She doesn’t like how careers in media get more money and glamor than more ordinary careers, like teaching. Dexter says maybe she should just be a teacher then. Emma says she doesn’t want his advice. Soon after, though, she apologizes for being disagreeable and boring. Dexter says he’s never found her boring.

Emma says it’s getting late, and she should go home, to the flat where she still lives with Tilly, since it’s far. Dexter offers to let her sleep on his sofa, since his own place is nearby. Emma considers it but doesn’t want to complicate her life. She promises herself that she will finally “tidy up” her life and start over again.