Mr. Wrong Number

Olivia and Colin’s relationship provides the narrative context for the novel’s exploration of friendship and romantic love. Olivia and Colin have known each other since they were young. However, ever since Colin “referred to [Olivia] as the ‘little weirdo’ at age fifteen,” the characters have only had a distanced acquaintanceship (9). In the narrative present, their forced proximity inspires feelings to grow between them. The forced proximity trope, common to the contemporary romance genre, is a narrative device used to draw unlikely characters together in a shared experience. In Mr. Wrong Number, Olivia’s one-month tenure at Colin and Jack’s apartment inspires the characters to spend time together and get to know one another. Over the course of the novel, an unexpected friendship develops between them which grows into romantic love over time. The novel uses their evolving dynamic to suggest that friendship provides a strong foundation for a romantic and sexual partnership.

Painter’s structure—alternating the main characters’ first-person points of view—allows her to reveal Olivia and Colin’s developing feelings for each other. When the characters start having sex and dating, Olivia becomes worried that her feelings will grow “too big and overtak[e] everything else” (260).