The Hating Game

Joshua is Lucy’s opposite. He’s executive assistant to Helene’s co-CEO Mr. Bexley. He’s well over 6 feet tall. Lucy describes him as resembling “old-fashioned drawings of Clark Kent” (17). He’s sarcastic, cynical, and often wears what Lucy calls his “Serial Killer” expression. He wears the same rotation of shirts every week. He is, as Lucy asserts, predictable. He tightly runs his part of the office. He’s unconcerned with niceties. In fact, he seems to hate “nice.” He is, in many ways, the classic bad boy.

However, when Lucy gets sick, he nurtures her. He changes her sweaty bedsheets and pajamas, monitors her fever, and calls his brother Patrick, a doctor, to make sure she’s okay. Over time, he continues to prove himself to her as a kind, caring person.

We experience Joshua through Lucy’s first-person point of view: The more she interacts with him, the more she understands she’s been wrong about who he is. This tension between who he really is, and who Lucy suspects he is, continues throughout the novel

Joshua’s Achilles heel is his father, who won’t accept that Joshua only did one year of medical school before dropping out; every other man in the Templeman family is a doctor. Joshua’s father doesn’t approve of or notice him, and so Joshua feels invisible. He tells Lucy: “’I may as well be the best at something, even if it is being an asshole” (303). He says about previous girlfriends: “’They’ve all…at some point made it pretty clear my personality is not…[…] I’m just not great to be around” (269).

Joshua hates the idea of nice guys. His past girlfriends have all left him for nice guys, including Mindy, his brother’s new wife. He doesn’t like that Lucy describes Danny as “nice.” He fears Lucy will choose Danny over him, continuing the pattern.

Over time, it becomes clear that Joshua never intended harm to Lucy. In the final chapter he admits: “I loved you the moment I saw you” (356). The color of his bedroom is the color of Lucy’s eyes. The marks he makes in his planner signify his interest in her and their relationship. He even wore the rotation of shirts to see if she would notice.

Joshua fits the archetype of the male love interest often seen in romance novels. He is mysterious, difficult, and beautiful on the outside. Inside, he is vulnerable, damaged, and sensitive. He hides his interiority until the right woman comes along and notices his carefully protected softness. Joshua’s mother says to Lucy: “You’ve taken the time to try to understand him […] You notice him” (295). Lucy knows him in ways others don’t: “Sure, he’s an argumentative, calculating, territorial asshole 40 percent of the time,” she thinks, “but the other 60 percent is so filled with humor and sweetness and vulnerability” (272). In the final pages of the novel, she tells him: “It’s time for you to be your true self. You’re a Mr. Nice Guy” (362). Joshua is more the self he tries to hide than the person he lets others easily see.

Danny has been working as a designer at Bexley & Gamin Publishing for years. He is about to leave to start his own business when Lucy notices how cute he is. Danny, the Nice Guy, is Lucy’s Betty, while Joshua, the Bad Boy, is her Veronica. (In Archie comics, Betty was the nice blonde who competed for Archie’s affection with Veronica, the rich, sophisticated brunette.)

Danny and Lucy have some things in common; he grew up on a hobby farm and she grew up on a strawberry farm. After their date, Lucy describes her time with him: “We hung out for hours, laughing like old friends, as comfortable as a pair of slippers” (77). He feels like a pal, easy to be with.

Danny is Joshua’s foil, or a character who highlights the traits of another character through opposing qualities. He represents every nice guy Joshua’s exes chose instead of him. He’s also what Lucy imagines her parents want for her. Danny is a fine kisser, but she feels nothing. Though Lucy and Danny agree to only being friends, he remains a source of jealousy for Joshua. 

Helene is the co-CEO of Bexley & Gamin Publishing and acts as a mentor to Lucy. She is in her early fifties. She buys all her clothes from Paris, as she’s originally from France. Lucy describes her as elegant. Lucy narrates: “If it’s not painfully clear, I idolize her […] I want to be her when I grow up” (31).

Helene unequivocally supports Lucy. When Lucy rehearses her interview presentation for the COO position, Helene grows emotional. Helene is a flat character. She doesn’t change throughout the novel, though it’s implied that she’s changed from the past, before the narrative’s events. She tells Lucy she’s been selfish by not encouraging Lucy to move out of the executive assistant position earlier. She says: “You’ve had ambitions, and things you wanted, and ideas, but I couldn’t bear to let you go” (184). Helene tells Lucy she’s confident she will get the job, and they will work side by side to get Bexley & Gamin back to what it should be. She adds: “Mentoring you might be one of the best things I ever achieve in my career” (184). She is a purely supportive force for Lucy.

Helene is wise and funny as well as kind. When Helene asks about her dates with Danny, Lucy tells her he’s nice. Helene answers: “All my favorite boyfriends when I was young weren’t particularly nice” (182). By the time Lucy and Joshua leave for the wedding, it’s clear Helene had suspected their relationship had become romantic, and that she’s pleased.