One Day: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

Saturday, July 15, 1995. Emma has tried to write a lot of different kinds of books with no success. Her current project of starting detective series also isn’t going well. She is still living with Ian, and although she’s tried to make him tone down the frequencies of his jokes, he still tells a lot of them. Ian asks to read Emma’s manuscript, but she says it’s terrible, and she hasn’t finished much anyway. Despite Emma’s initial reluctance, she and Ian bought a place together to save on rent. The place is still a bit of a mess, and it’s so small that even Ian’s cooking is enough to set off the fire alarm.

Ian has heard that Dexter is taking Emma out to dinner and asks questions about it. Emma says she won’t go if Ian doesn’t want her to. He insists he doesn’t mind and that he has a paid gig anyway, but he seems to mind. Emma reminds Ian that Dexter is already dating Suki, and Emma tells Ian she loves him. Still, privately, she panics that maybe she doesn’t have feelings for Ian and is building a life with someone she doesn’t actually love.

Dexter’s mornings after his Friday-night show are always rough. Although people still hate him, this seems to be good for ratings. He did a spread in a magazine recently and secretly hopes to get more into modeling. He set up his own production company, Mayhem TV, to try to gain more industry credibility, but so far, the company is just a logo. Dexter has slowly been cutting ties with old friends like Callum that he no longer has time for. After he sees Emma in the evening, he plans to ditch her and go to a big house party.

Ian leaves for his standup gig, and Emma thinks about how quickly the new house’s novelty has worn off. She turns on the TV and sees Suki Meadows conducting a search for Britain’s Most Talented Pet. She considers calling Dexter, although she and him haven’t gotten along well recently, often canceling plans at the last minute.

Meanwhile, after filming, Suki calls Dexter on his cell phone to tell him how excited she was to see a dog playing drums. He’s standing outside Bar Italia, a restaurant in Soho. Dexter tells her there’s no need to shout, and she hangs up on him. Just then Emma arrives and Dexter’s mood brightens. She tells him he should get rid of his cell phone and she takes a bet with him that she herself will never have a cell phone. He takes the bet, claiming she’ll have one within her lifetime, possibly within six months.

Dexter leads Emma into a large restaurant called Poseidon’s, which looks expensive. He insists on buying her a nice cocktail. A beautiful woman in a corset and stockings comes over to sell cigarettes. Emma is caught off guard and refuses. Dexter buys Marlboro Lights and tells the woman to keep the change, seeming satisfied with himself. Emma says the cigarette girls seem like something out of Playboy, but Dexter insists it’s just “post-feminism.” They argue about whether the woman actually has any choice in what she wears or if she needs to wear it for her job.

Emma is still angry but suggests changing the subject. She looks at the menu and is surprised that it isn’t fancy French food or anything like that, just more expensive versions of British pub basics. She tells Dexter he seems to be more knowledgeable about food lately, and he says he’s been offered to write a weekly column about cocktail bars. After ordering, Dexter goes to the bathroom, taking his second martini with him and staying a long time. Each of them feels that the dinner is going poorly, but each still secretly loves the other.

On his way back from the restroom, Dexter finds the cigarette girl again, buys another pack, then asks when her shift ends. He comes back to Emma, who jokes that he was away so long, she thought he fell in. Dexter says one of his poker friends, who is also a baronet, is having a party later. He invites Emma, who seems skeptical of whether she’s actually welcome. Suki will also be there. Emma says she likes Suki, although she’s only met her once.

Dexter offers to give Emma money so that she can take a cab back after the party, but she refuses. She asks again if she’s really welcome, and he insists on her coming. Dexter asks about Ian. Emma would like to confide in him about her doubts about her relationship with Ian, but she fears Dexter is in a fighting mood, so she lies and says everything with Ian is great. She asks about his steak, and he says it’s amazing. But when he asks about her fish, she reveals that it’s frozen and wasn’t defrosted.

Dexter wants to send back the frozen fish, but Emma doesn’t want to cause a problem. Dexter nevertheless brings over a waiter and makes Emma order something new, insisting to the waiter that it should be free. She orders a salad that arrives, but she doesn’t want it. Emma wants to cry. Dexter says sarcastically that things seem to be going well. He changes the subject and asks her about her teaching job, then implies that she should be trying to do something better than teaching.

Emma gets angry and says that Dexter is drunk—in fact, she hasn’t seen him sober in three years. She says his own job as a TV presenter isn’t that impressive either. He says she’s getting “hysterical.” Emma calls him “obnoxious” in return and says he’s not the person she used to know. She wonders if maybe their friendship should be over. Dexter is surprised and says that even though he’s frustrated with her, he never considered that possibility.

Emma says Dexter should go to the party alone, since he seems like he’d rather be somewhere else. She says he shouldn’t call her anymore. Dexter is indignant at first, then pleads forgiveness so that they can stay friends. But Emma stays firm and leaves.

When Emma gets home, she tells Ian how poorly dinner went. He admits that his gig went bad too and there was a lot of heckling. Emma tries to reassure him that that happens, but he starts to worry sometimes that he might not actually be funny. Emma reassures him that he is. This pleases him. He’s been daydreaming ways to propose to Emma for weeks. Meanwhile, it turns out the cigarette girl rejected Dexter’s party invitation because she was already engaged to a former football player. Also, she vaguely recognized Dexter from TV and knew he was going out with Suki.