Meg and Nikki tackle Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez and the book club is in session! Justin has a curse — every woman he breaks up with goes on to find her soulmate next. Emma has the same curse in reverse. So naturally, they strike a deal: date each other just for the summer, break each other's curse, and walk away clean. It does not go as planned.

There's a curse-breaking pact, a pre-date SurveyMonkey questionnaire that may be Nikki's actual love language, a devastating family reveal, and exactly the kind of quietly excellent parenting-your-siblings, paddling-a-unicorn-floaty-across-a-lake romance you didn't know you needed.

Listen in for:

• Parental trauma, lake house love, and good raccoon content
• Nikki's obvious love of pre-date questionnaires (and exit surveys)
• The emotional arc of Justin and Emma — and why they're both too competent for this trope
• Why we LOVE to see a solid "if he wanted to, he would"
• The rosebush, the Toilet King, and the forehead kiss runner that's doing more work than you think
• This week's shipping picks: a fake-dating F/F romance set at 30,000 feet, and a dark, dystopian Omegaverse serial for when you want something completely different

Get the full show notes at: http://firstdatesandsoulmates.com/abby-jimenez-just-for-the-summer

Read our full book review of Just for the Summer.

Books & Media We Mention

• Just for the Summerby Abby Jimenez
• Part of Your Worldby Abby Jimenez(same universe — Daniel and Alexis both make an appearance)
• Good Luck Chuck(film) — the curse's cinematic predecessor
• Get a Life, Chloe Brownby Talia Hibbert(full episode here)
• The Love Hypothesisby Ali Hazelwood(full episode here)

Our Ships This Week:

• Fly With Meby Andie Burke, an F/F fake-dating romance
• The Night Movers (Season One)by Onley James, writing as Nola Harker — Nikki's shipping pick, a dark Omegaverse serial

On the pre-date surveys:

Nikki: "This is my love language. I think I've figured out what it is and it is predate surveys."

Meg: "It is requesting your input without putting you on the spot. It is saying what is important and valuable to you that I can accommodate without making you plan anything — that is so sexy."

On the forehead kiss runner:

Meg: "He is not manipulating her, but he's working on the situation to make sure that he's leaving her wanting a little bit more. So that way she has to keep coming back to him."

On the rosebush:

Meg: "Instead of bringing her cut flowers, he brought her a rosebush."

Nikki: "The rosebush is a metaphor, Meg, for putting down roots."

On Sarah's call bringing Emma home:

Nikki: "Just imagine what it's like to be Emma, who was always waiting for someone and never trusting that they were gonna show up — to hear 'I knew you would come.' It's like, we can break generational trauma. It can happen. This is what can happen."

Meg: Welcome to First States and Soulmates, where we're asking am I the asshole because I adopted the ugliest dog at the shelter and named it after my best friend. I am your co-host, Meg Casebolt,

Nikki: And I am Nikki McKnight.

Meg: and this week we are talking about and doing a read along of Just For the Summer by Abby Jimenez. And that's how the book starts.

So we're just setting it right up. Um, Nikki, I am wearing my just for the summer hair right now because I only wear my hair curly in the summer because I can't bring myself to turn on a blow dryer when it is 88 degrees out. Um, and yesterday was my kids' last day of school the day that we're recording.

And so, uh, my hair was chlorine and firecracker smoke, and I was like, no, it's just gonna be a curly day. Mm.

Nikki: Yeah, it's great. You know, this, uh, we are in the middle of a heat wave right now, and yesterday, uh, it was feeling like 45 degrees Celsius, which is about 115 Fahrenheit. I've not been outside in three days, y'all. Uh, but it, it is great. This is the type of

Meg: Okay, wait, so here's a good one. Am I the asshole? Because I made my kids go to camp in a not air conditioned place, so that way I could be here in my air conditioned house recording this podcast with you.

Nikki: I don't think so.

Meg: They have a pool. They have Splash Pad. They have the bounce pillow. They're gonna be just fine.

Nikki: He's gonna be totally fine. Not, not the asshole, no assholes

Meg: Yes. N-T-A-N-T-A.

Nikki: we go. I do, I do. I do like this. Yeah. Like it, it's always funny when we talk about like summer romances, that like, one of the things that's always in the back of my head is like, ugh, it's probably hot outside.

Meg: It's probably so hot.

Nikki: Did they for? Did they remember to put on sunblock? We're like, do they have a really bad

Meg: Bug spray too. Whew.

Nikki: bug spray too? Especially if you're like camping or the see

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: logistical, real world shit. Getting in the way of my, in the way of my stories. This is why I use romance as an escapism. 'cause I don't wanna worry.

Did they put enough sunscreen on? They've been fucking for a real long time. Do they need to reapply? Sunscreen? No, I don't need that. Nobody

Meg: No, nobody needs sand in any of those crevices.

Nikki: So, okay, here's the thing. This book is set in Minnesota. Minnesota, which is what I kept

Meg: Minnesota.

Nikki: as I was reading it. got fucking black flies, y'all.

They've got bugs the size of whatever. So, you know, I'm sure we'll get into the scenery and the plot and all that, but I just gotta say, you tell me you have a cottage on an island in Minnesota. My first thought is, oh my god, the bugs, you can't sit outside on that beautiful

Meg: porch overlooking

Nikki: the lake. The

Meg: bugs are gonna

Nikki: be bad.

Meg: It's gonna be mosquito territory all over. Mm-hmm.

Nikki: in romance world we can just say that like annoying bugs like that don't exist and, but they, you know, the ecosystem is still great, very self-sustaining. We love it, but like getting bit on the ass by mosquitoes or getting their toes chewed on by random fish in the lake. I would just like to imagine that wildlife does not interfere with my enjoyment of, you know, a lake view

Meg: I mean, some people say that romance is basically just like fantasies for women and I think in fantasies for women, um, you don't have bugs.

Nikki: Yeah. We don't have mosquitoes. I'm

Meg: Maybe they just have like, you know how they say like vitamin B12 or B6 or whatever can help you fend off some of these. Maybe they just because they work in a hospital, they have really strong B6

Nikki: I was about to say, like, when you first said, I was like, do you mean vitamin D? No.

Meg: Oh God,

Nikki: It's Dick. You're welcome. Yeah, I went there. Uh, alright, so just for the sub Jimenez, uh,

Meg: was this your first Abby, him and I's book?

Nikki: No, I've read some of her, like her meet cute series that they did for, uh, um, Kindle Unlimited, like

Meg: Hmm? The novellas. Yeah.

Nikki: Yeah. Yeah. I think I've read one other by her. Like, I'm not, I, I would not call myself experienced with, um, Madame Jimenez's, uh, catalog by any means. Um, but I do know of her. Uh, but I didn't know what this book was about. Um, I didn't read the book Blur before I started reading it. Um, so I kinda just went in blind, had no idea what it was about, and I was like, oh, okay, cool.

I'm just gonna go along for the ride. We're gonna see what happens. Like, what did you know, is this your first time reading this book? Was this a revisit? Did you know anything about it?

Meg: This was my first time reading this book. And when I looked at the listing, it looked like it was a standalone. It looked like it was intended to be not part of a series, and you could read it at any point. And then I open it up and she gets to Minnesota and she's there in Neil's backyard that used to be Alexis's Backyard.

And Alexis wasn't part of your world. And I was like, Hmm, this is connected, but it's still a standalone, but it's in this same universe, which Eby Jimenez does really well. And then the more it went on, the more I was like, no, this is part of a series. This is book three in a series. And it's not just this connected universe because there are things that played out in book two that matter now.

And Brianna from Book one shows up because they all work at the same hospital. I'm like, why wasn't this listed that way? And then today I went and looked at it in Amazon and even though this book is not listed as part of the series, they do sell it as a three book box set. I'm like, what the, this is weird.

Nikki: 'cause like on Good Reads says it is book three of

Meg: Oh, it doesn't on Amazon. That's strange. Right?

Nikki: was also just really funny when I, 'cause when we decided on this book, I was like, oh, it's not in Kindle Unlimited. That's fine. My local library has a copy and it's a huge ass hardcover.

Meg: like 400 pages hardcover too. Right?

Nikki: and then like two weeks ago it showed up on Kindle Unlimited. And

Meg: that was why.

Nikki: on my Kindle and I was like, oh, okay, this is just really random. That's fine. Um, so I had both versions of it, which was cute. It's fine. It was just, you know, really kind of weird thing to kind of start it off by. But overall, I'm a fan. I am a fan. I tell you, uh, we were chatting, um, in our group chat and I was just like, what is it with books that we're reading for this show recently, making me fucking cry, like

Meg: Well,

Nikki: like,

Meg: I know what's gonna set you off. Maybe that's part of it is I know what's gonna do it.

Nikki: see all y'all think that like Meg is like, oh, this super supportive co-host, but she's really like, how do I get Nikki to read books about vagina and how do I make Nikki cry? I feel like this

Meg: Am I the asshole for choosing books that make you cry?

Nikki: No, this is a great, this is a great, this is a great fucking book.

This was so good and I have so much that I like about it. A couple things I found a little bit confusing or op that I'm sure we will discuss, but let's talk about it. So quick plot summary. Um, we have our main characters, Justin and Emma. Uh, and Justin has a curse. If you've ever seen that movie. Good luck, Chuck.

Then you know what it is? It's that whenever he breaks up with a woman, uh, the next person she dates is. They're the soulmate, her one and only. And so he goes on to Reddit and is like, Hey, this is a curse. I have. Someone broke up with me, started dating one of my best friends, who was my roommate. Because of him, I couldn't afford my apartment.

I had to move into a really shitty apartment with this view of this really bad toilet ad. So, you know, I also adopted the ugliest dog I could find and named it after, said friend, like, am I the asshole? And this post ends up going viral on Reddit. And so it's, it gets into social media and all these things. And then you have Emma, who is a travel nurse with her best friend, Maddie sees this come up and, you know, she kind of, I don't remember the first question she sends him. Um, but she's, she sends 'em like a quick DM about something and they start having a conversation. 'cause she, oh no. 'cause she also believes she has the same curse

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: that when men break up with her, the next woman they go on to date is their soulmates.

So they're like, Hey, curse buddies. Uh, so they become friends and they decide, hey, what if we date each other? Just for the summer rural credits, there's the title. Uh, and that would just mean that the next people we date, we will help each other get to soulmates. And of course,

Meg: Each of us will break the other person's curse is the goal. And so they come up with this framework. 'cause you know, we love a framework that it's like, okay, what have been the, the things that are the same for every person that you've dated? There has to be at least four dates. There has to be a kiss, there has to, you have to mi fit this minimum criteria.

It's not you meet in an airport and then you leave. Right. There has to be a minimum commitment. Um, so they decide to accomplish this minimum four date, one kiss. By the end of the summer,

Nikki: Yeah. And she as a traveling nurse is not in Minnesota at the beginning of the book. I think they're in Colorado.

Meg: they, in Colorado, they're supposed to go to Hawaii.

Nikki: next,

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: Emma travels with her bestie Maddie. Uh, 'cause Emma has had a not great childhood and Maddie's parents really kind of helped raise her.

Maddie is kind of her person and they both are traveling nurses and they kind of, they switch off choosing where they're gonna go next. And they're supposed to go to Hawaii next. But the more, uh, that Emma and Justin, you know, have FaceTime and they text and fun, she's kinda like, I kind of wanna go to Minnesota next.

Uh, and which Maddie is not happy about. She goes Hawaii. Minnesota mosquitoes. But you know, they obviously, they end up going 'cause it's a very prestigious hospital. It's, they have a, an island cottage with a boat, which sounds romantic until you start thinking about the logistics of boat, uh, to get to shore. Um, and then she starts, you know, to break the curse with Justin. And Justin has his own shit going on with his family.

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: of drama, family drama in this book is a, is a common theme, common theme in this, let's talk about this idea of the breakup curse. 'cause as I said, this comes up in the movie, uh, good luck, Chuck, I think is the name of it. Um, this whole, you know, you're dating someone and then you break up and then the next person you meet is your soulmate. How do you like this as a plot device?

Generally speaking.

Meg: I like it as a way that they have something in common and they have a reason for getting together and it's enough of a connection point between them that she would make the leap to go to Minnesota. But she's also like a little bit nervous about it. So she's like, I will only come for the summer 'cause I don't wanna deal with Minnesota winters.

And I'm like, same lady, same.

Nikki: I get it.

Meg: Um, so you know, she's able to put her boundaries around it and he can't leave because of his family drama. So, um, wait, no, I don't wanna go there. Um, but I love that they have the breakup curse because then the whole time, even though he knows that Emma's it for her, from the minute he sees her, she's got one foot out the door because they've come to this agreement, a very clear, you know, in the same way that we talked about with like fake dating, where it's like you need to have an end point.

Nikki: Yep.

Meg: To move forward from. We had a very similar situation here where it's like, no, she has a six week contract and that's it,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: she's not going to stay.

Nikki: No, 'cause that's obviously a big part of her character development that we get into later, but the thing I found. kind of intriguing with this is they do agree, like, yeah, we're gonna do it just for a couple weeks. I promise. I'm not a serial killer. I'm also, I'm Emma's like, I'm not a reporter trying to get your story.

I'm also

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: who's just trying to date you so I can immediately dump you and find my happy ever after. Like, this is a mutual, uh, kind of thing. But also I like how from the very beginning he's like, no, no, no. I'm in.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: like, he kind of like loses the plot of this breakup curse almost immediately.

Meg: The minute he sees her, he is like, it is the truck hitting me. It is the moment. Like he, you know, I love the, the, he falls first trope, but he doesn't just fall first, he crashes.

Nikki: Yeah.

Meg: it works in this case because we have the breakup curse, but then we have him dating, I can't remember the name of Brad's girlfriend now.

Um,

Nikki: I don't

Meg: but

Nikki: top of my head.

Meg: his previous girlfriend, when his best friend met her

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: like, it was like being hit by a truck. I just knew it was her from the moment I saw her. And so, because we already had that established, we, it happens to Justin, we're like, oh, this tracks already, this isn't out of the blue. This is an experience that other people has had, have had with his girlfriends.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: he's dating them. Um, so it adds that extra layer of when it happens to Justin, we almost sort of expect it because we know how romance works. But also it's been established. It's not just, oh, you know, the novella feeling of we fell in love and we're instant love and, and we're gonna go run off and get married.

It's so much more complicated than that.

Nikki: yeah. 'cause that was actually one of the, uh, one of the criticisms that I didn't necessarily have, but I saw come up in a couple of the reviews was the instant love aspect

Meg: Mm.

Nikki: was, 'cause I found how their relationship developed in like, the dms and then they started texting each other. Like, I thought that was really fun and cute and really believable because

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: You know what? We had nothing to lose by talking to each other. It's almost like it was so low risk to just talk and have these conversations that it made it really fun for both of them to participate in, which I really enjoyed. Like when he sees a couple, um, like a proposal on a famous bridge, he's like, oh, I immediately like FaceTimes her and she's like, watching this proposal happen and she goes, take me through a walk for your time.

Like, I thought that was so cute,

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: like really believable. Like it didn't seem overdone to me. 'cause I'm like, yeah, like I've often thought like when when I date, I'm like, I wish we could just skip right to that part.

Meg: Mm.

Nikki: can we just pretend we already know each other because then the conversations are better, which allows us to actually get to know each other rather than this very stilted.

What do you do?

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: your family? Which for these two is a bad question to ask.

Meg: Right.

Nikki: on? Right? But if you can just kinda go right into like, okay, cool. Take me for a walk. Like what? Walk me through your entire day today. Like, that felt so nice to me. Like literally walk, I woke up, I washed my face.

This is what I put in my coffee. I went and did this. I went and did this. I'm like, that's like, honestly the, it didn't even feel like Insta love to me because it wasn't, I caught their eye across the bar and I knew she was the one.

Meg: I'd never spoken to her. I didn't know her name, but I was in love with her, whereas I feel like they were friends first and then when he saw her, he had this more like physical attraction.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: I think he was already feeling a lot of those emotions even before he laid eyes on her.

Nikki: Yeah. Yeah. It's like, and I thought it was really funny when they both kind of do that thing, which, which does show up, uh, in books where people haven't met each other in person yet. They're like, oh, send a photo. And they're trying to be coy and like, here's a photo of my dog. And you see like their hand in it and you're like, that's a hot, that's a sexy hand.

Or you know, like, you know, when she first sends a photo, 'cause he's convinced that like she's a reporter just trying to get the story. And she's like, now I'm a nurse. And he's like, prove it. So she, she says, how many fingers do you want me to hold up? And she takes a picture of herself in her scrubs with, you know, her hospital name badge, blanked out, holding up the number of fingers and his thought is, oh, she's hot.

Meg: She's hot.

Nikki: And then am I Maddie? See a picture of Justin. 'cause Maddie, like a good, best friend,

Meg: She's such a good, best friend.

Nikki: stalker.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: image searches. She's finding out the name of his and a picture of his dog. She finds him on Instagram and LinkedIn. She's like, here's his full name and his job title. I'm like, girl,

Meg: In like two minutes too.

Nikki: Yeah,

Meg: Everyone needs a Maddie.

Nikki: I did love it though. That was, it was just like a fun entry point. And then as you

Meg: And it feels like very, it feels very real to say, oh, I just reached out to this person on dms. Oh, we weren't in the same place, but we got to know each other. Like, it felt like a very organic friendship starting up where they did have this attraction together, but the idea of breaking the curse held together enough that, that Emma could almost convince herself that was really the reason she was going because she had such commitment issues and such attachment issues that she wouldn't have gone for it if he said, just come date me.

But she's like, oh, I'll go break his curse. You know? Like it, it was a lower commitment for her because she would definitely not have gone for it otherwise.

Nikki: No. So, I let, let's talk about Emma A. Little bit because I really liked her. 'cause

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: know from the beginning, uh, with Maddie, Maddie's gonna go home for her, her birthday, her parents'

Meg: Her parents' anniversary, I think.

Nikki: Yeah. And she says to, you know, Emma, like, oh, are you gonna come? And Emma's like, no. And like, they're your parents too, because they're not her parents.

But they essentially did raise Emma. 'cause Emma's mom, Amber was very much not in the picture. And it was very, very rough childhood. But we can tell even with Emma's reaction to that conversation with Maddie, that we know that Emma keeps people at a distance. We know that she's transient, like the very fact that they only spend a couple months in every location.

And Maddie does kind of make fun of Emma for the fact that her suitcases are always packed. She lives out of her suitcase, she rarely unpacks. Her suitcases are always very easily accessible to her. So we, we have this vision of Emma being this very, like, it's almost like she should be cold and keep people at a distance, but she's a nurse, which is the most fucking empathetic career.

Holy shit.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: Props to nurses, but she's a great friend with Maddie, and she like forms a really great connection with Justin almost immediately. So it's almost confusing in a, in a good way from the beginning that we're like, Emma doesn't seem like she would be the type of person to be this way.

Meg: To be this distanced.

Nikki: like, what's going on?

So when it ultimately does get revealed, it's, it shocked me massively. But before we get into that, um, when you think of Emma's concept of like traveling being in all these places and keeping people at a distance, like why, why do you feel she connected with Justin and Justin's family, like his siblings so quickly?

Meg: You know, I don't actually know why, because I think also so much of Emma's character is, it was her and her mom, Amber, and that was it. And that was all she had in the world. And Amber really isolated her. Um, Amber really kept her away from everyone else. And we find out later on that Amber had a whole family that could have been Emma's family and she wanted to keep Emma to herself, but she was still in touch with the family, which is really fucked up.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: because she didn't wanna share her. She didn't want anyone to get a taste of how great Emma was. But then she treated Emma like shit and neglected her. It was like really a fucked up situation. And then Amber comes to Minnesota to see Emma and ends up just like having a relationship with her landlord,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: um, and completely ignoring her again.

But even so, we have this Emma, who is so desperate for her mother's attention. And Justin sees that. And Justin is, um, so connected to Emma in a way that Emma doesn't usually connect to people that it's like so hard. And even there are moments where Emma's like, I don't wanna meet your mother. I don't wanna meet your mother.

I don't wanna meet your siblings. I don't wanna meet any of these people because I'm just gonna leave. And I think that feels more in line with the situation. And it's not until Justin's mom calls completely shitfaced, but that moment where she, she's in the back of his car with the live raccoons, Nikki,

Nikki: Yes. Oh my God. The baby raccoons. I was like fucking Minnesota. Of course, there's baby raccoons

Meg: baby raccoons in her shirt, and she's like, Emma, don't you want one of these baby raccoons? And Justin's like, no. And Emma's like, yes, I want a baby raccoon.

Nikki: Yeah. Uh, it was so funny 'cause like, even with like the scene that kind of comes to mind. 'cause again, you know, Amber, Emma's mom is constantly leaving her, and Maddie keeps saying to Emma, like, you let her walk all over you. You let her wreck you, you let her turn you into this thing.

And you're always making excuses for her. You're always doing this, you're always doing that. And Emma's constantly making excuses for her mom. So when she does show up. Um, Maddie's pretty much saying, well, she only showed up because you sent her the address and she saw it was like a big house, and she just wanted to kind of come and see what money she could get.

And of course, she ends up moving in with their landlord, who's a very successful surgeon. And there's a scene where Emma is at work at the hospital and her mom comes in with a lunch bag and she goes, oh, where's Neil? Who's the landlord and the surgeon that, uh, Emma and Maddie are working under? And they're like, oh, he's in surgery or doing something.

She's like, oh, I brought him lunch. Okay. It's fine. I guess I'll, he, uh, he can do it later. And like leaves and Emma has a moment of like, oh, and Maddie and Justin, like, pretty much everybody around them is kind of explicitly or thinking it shouldn't bring you lunch.

Meg: Yeah, you're her kid.

Nikki: lunch, but she didn't come here to see you.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: lunch. And then Justin walks in. With the biggest fucking lunch bag of sandwiches and snacks. And she's kinda like, what are you doing here? And he goes, oh, like I know you said you're always so busy and sometimes you don't get to eat. So I wanted to make sure you had so many options to like eat throughout the day.

And Meg,

Meg: Did you lose it?

Nikki: I lost my shit. 'cause I just, enough until that point had done a lot of great things, but like showing up with a sandwich. And I think he had his youngest sibling, Chelsea, with him

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: like young, like toddler

Meg: Four-ish I think. Yeah.

Nikki: Um, and he just shows up and he's like, yeah, I got, I, you know, here's a sandwich, but there's also some snacks.

There's also this 'cause I he know have it whenever you need to. on the heels of

Meg: Amber doing nothing. Ugh.

Nikki: not even being there for her. And even Maddie's, like if she wanted to, she would. He wanted to. So he did.

Meg: Oh.

Nikki: Oh my God.

Meg: Can we talk? I don't know if we wanna go here. Can we talk about Justin's. Surveys.

Nikki: Yes. Oh my God. Justin is like the epitome of, and Maddie calls this out very early in the story. If he wanted to, he would.

Meg: And I think also like I wanted to talk to you specifically about the surveys and the invitations because it's such an operational thing where it's like, I want your input, but I want it to be fun. So before every one of their four dates, he sends her a survey that's like, how do you wanna dress? Do you want, here are the options of things that you, we can do or you can leave it to my choice based on your dress preferences.

What kind of food do you want to eat? Like he has a survey and then he creates the full date plan. He sends an evite of where and when to meet and when he'll pick her up. And then after the survey, he sends an exit survey to be like, what did you enjoy the most? What could we do differently for next time?

Like, it is just so sweet,

Nikki: I

Meg: but without being creepy, without being annoying. It's just like, he's so thoughtful.

Nikki: It is. So I actually highlighted so much of this, um, so

Meg: you as I read this. I was like, the operations professional is gonna love this.

Nikki: know, she's, she and Maddie are sitting on the porch like watching the sunset and. That her cell phone pings and she thinks is probably her mom, but it was Justin and it was a link to SurveyMonkey and she clicked on it and a survey popped up, titled Your Date with Justin. Congratulations on your upcoming date with Justin. Your preferences are important, so he'd like to know what you think. Please complete this questionnaire by nine o'clock tonight. And then she goes, oh my God, he didn't, it was multiple choice. Preferred time of day for our date, breakfast, lunch, or dinner. What activities interest you? And then a list. Food preferences, fanciness level, preferred greeting, contact list. Victorian, which is small cur scene, a slight nod, handshake hug, air kiss on both cheeks. High five. preferred mode of transportation. Um, and then after she filled out her selections, um, he, she wakes up the next morning to an evite.

Meg: Oh,

Meg: it is requesting your input without putting you on the spot. It is saying what is important and valuable to you that I can accommodate without making you plan anything that is so sexy.

Nikki: And then like the exit interview is like, on a scale from awkward to charming, how would you rate Justin's performance at any point during the date? Did you experience the following symptoms, butterflies, flushing, unexplained arousal, fluttering in the heart. On a scale of one to 10, how likely would you be, uh, to date Justin?

Again, if breaking the curse wasn't a factor, what words would you use to describe any further comments? He also, earlier on. When they were setting this all up, he solicited testimonials

Meg: did from his ex-girlfriends.

Nikki: of like, here's what it's like to date Justin. So I look at, I, I, I cannot with how fucking cute this is, but it didn't feel cute in like a performative,

Meg: No,

Nikki: at this like, great male character.

He's so good. And you can tell he's the good one. It's like, no, this was just fucking great. This was

Meg: it's like it's good customer experience is what it is.

Nikki: you know what, that's,

Meg: This should go to your YouTube channel.

Nikki: This is my whole career is scaling and spark, you know, signature customer experiences. Um, just fucking loved it. it because he keeps showing up for her in so many ways.

Like the other one that really stood out for me was. gets like Noro or something

Meg: Noro.

Nikki: which is so funny. We were just talking about Norovirus before we started recording. 'cause my 6-year-old nephew was going through his kindergarten class and we were all very exposed to it. So we were just doing like a quick check-in like, Hey, it's been four days.

Did you, are you guys clean? We're like, we're clear. We're in the clear. So like she gets like Noro or similar and she's so ill, Maddie has gone home for this anniversary thing, so she's alone on this island. 'cause they have an island that's, they're renting from Dr. Neil and Justin's trying to get ahold of her and finally she, he gets there and he gets, she's like, I need help, essentially. Like, don't call 9 1 1, but like, help, can you please come? So of course he like runs to Neil's place. He goes to the dock and he's like, fuck the pontoon boat isn't here. It's at the cottage with Emma. How the fuck am I gonna get over there? I'm like, nobody's there. 'cause Neil and Amber I think went to Mexico or something on vacation he starts paddling himself cottage and we are talking swells. It's like an hour. He is sunburnt and he finally gets there and he finds her like passed out, um, in the bathroom. And he calls for help. He calls his friends for help and they help get her back, but like he fucking took a unicorn, floaty Meg, and

Meg: He

Nikki: across the lake.

Meg: paddled the lake to get to her. And he brought her, and this was, this is one of the symbols that I love in it too, is he brought her, instead of bringing her cut flowers, he brought her a rosebush.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: And she was like, where am I gonna, what am I gonna do with this? I'm a traveling nurse. And it's this idea of like, is she ready to put down roots?

And where would it go? Because even at their cottage. Nobody's gonna care for it. It's like a really rundown cottage. It's in really shitty shape. The boat's not well taken care of, et cetera. So she ends up planting it in his yard even before she leaves, because that's the place that feels most grounded to her.

That's the place that feels like home, even as much as she resists, I don't wanna meet your mother. I don't wanna meet your siblings. I don't want to do that. I just want this to be short term. She can't help but be pulled into his life, against her own defenses.

Nikki: Yeah. Uh, the Rose Bush is a metaphor, Meg, for

Meg: And it's a symbol.

Nikki: putting down roots,

Meg: Um,

Nikki: Like, that's,

Meg: is that what that was?

Nikki: It's what

Meg: I thought it was just a pretty flower.

Nikki: is, this is storytelling. Meg, you might not know about this, but, um, sometimes

Meg: There's this thing called subtext.

Nikki: a thing called subtext. Um, I like, I just, like, I loved their whole relationship 'cause I, let's go back to their family drama for a second. So, has grown up with Amber, her mom, who from the very first time Amber showed up on page. I'm like, she must. Must be bipolar disorder. She must have manic depression.

She's got something health wise that is challenging for her. And that's one of the reasons why Emma keeps making excuses for her. She

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: that cracks happen, um, in people and that makes it really challenging for them. But she's been brought up to believe that she, all she has is Amber.

Like, 'cause Amber has told her grandparents died before she was born. She doesn't know who her father is, like on and on and on. So for her birthday, Maddie convinces her to submit her DNA to like a 23 and me type thing. And Hey, we'll put your profile on private and when you're ready we can see if you, we can find your dad.

We can find, they just expect to find her father. And I thought, cool, maybe they'll find a father and he'll be a nice warm individual with his own family and he will take her in. No, when she decides to do this shit, she finds out, she has a half brother, she has aunts, she has uncles, she has cousins. She has. fucking extended family. And Daniel, her half brother, sees this and pretty much immediately messages her and says, is Amber your mother? And she says, yes. And it turns out they're only a couple hours away from each other. So before she loses her nerve, uh, Emma, Maddie and Justin go to meet Daniel.

Meg: And for the record, if you have read part of your world, this is Daniel who we met Amber in part of your world. So it was Alexis lived in the house with Neil, where now Emma's living in the back of it. And Daniel is Alexis's partner. And so they're all connected in this way. So even though like Daniel has no idea that Amber's, even in Minnesota, his mom is there and she hasn't reached out to him either.

'cause she's the biggest piece of shit.

Nikki: Which, as you say that, I'm really happy. Then I didn't read the previous books because been like, oh, that's related. Then

Meg: Yeah. As soon as I saw Amber show up, I was like, oh shit. Is that Daniel's amber? Because you know, you know?

Nikki: had no idea. So when that reveal happened that it, no, it wasn't hiding a father. It was hiding entire fucking family. And then when they go to the house, they're like, oh, this is a family house. Oh, I've actually seen Amber. So this is not like a kid that Amber like gave up for adoption and never fucking saw

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: She has seen and talked to Daniel recently and she stops by, I think he said like once or twice a year.

Meg: Every couple of years. Yeah.

Nikki: Like she's not, she's absent as a parent. Yes. But she's not absent from his life. So when that happened, I was like, motherfucker, I wanna kill Amber.

Meg: Yeah. And that's finally the moment that Emma separates. That's finally the moment where it, Emma sees, they're going through a book, like a, a photo album, and she sees a photo of Amber at Grant House, and she looks at the date, and it's the weekend that Emma was so hungry, she had to go next door and dig up vegetables from the neighbor's house because she was so hungry and had no food left behind.

And her mom is sitting there drinking a beer at a barbecue with her family. She left Emma at home. And that's the moment that Emma breaks because Amber, in addition to being like long-term piece of shit, she always has these episodes, but she has good times too. When Amber came back and Maddie's like, she's gonna hurt your feelings again. Emma's like, well, she's going to therapy. And then it finally comes out the, the therapist is just like a shaman or something who's like, oh, you should have more opals. Right? So even when, even though Emma is constantly, constantly giving her mother the benefit of the doubt, and Amber is saying all the right things, everything still falls apart.

And that's the moment where Emma just, she talks all this time about ice cracking and people not coming back together the same way. And that's what gives Justin this idea of if you can choose empathy or anger, you choose empathy. But that's the moment where Emma just, she calls it going small.

Nikki: She goes to her island and she's by herself and she just has to be,

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: and

Meg: her entire life is a lie.

Nikki: And that like I, for me, family is so important and knowing Emma had been growing up with, just like for like, Amber is evil,

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: an evil person.

Meg: You know, I think she's a psychopath. I think she's a psychopath and I think that she doesn't know how much what she did to Emma would hurt her. She's only focused on herself.

Nikki: yeah, because, and I think it, she even kind of talks about, I think, I don't know if this is Emma that brings it up, or if it's Maddie, that does, but this idea that. she, Amber knows Emma will take her back and quote, unquote, forgive her.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: doing it because it, that makes her feel big and it makes her feel important.

And it's so interesting when you contrast her with Justin's family. So the big problem with Justin is that his, his dad was killed by a drunk driver like the year before. Two years

Meg: Oh, it was several years. Years before, yeah. When he was a teenager. I think.

Nikki: oh, I

Meg: You know what, I think, I think, um, Chelsea, who's four, when the book starts was a newborn,

Nikki: Okay, so

Meg: it would've been about three and a half years prior.

Nikki: So it turns out, um, you know, he's having to give up his apartment even though it's bad with the big toilet ad. And he's starting to take care of his siblings because his mother is about to go to prison. Where she's been sentenced to six years in jail for embezzlement from the company that she was like really high up in. 'cause he talks about the fact that like, oh, her career, her degree, she's been cleaning houses because she's trying to get as many jobs in before next week. And then it's revealed next week is when she has to check in to go to prison. And despite the fact that the company asked for leniency, the judge said, Nope, you're getting six years.

So he is having to go. He is in a rough family situation too. He is angry at his mother for doing this. He's angry that like his, his father is not there to help him. He's angry that he's gonna have to give up everything he's done so far to take care of his three siblings. His three siblings are going through it.

Chelsea doesn't really understand what's happening where um, Alex and Sarah who are older are like struggling in their own way. So he is very much chained to his family in the who are present. Whereas Emma is chained by her mother who is not present.

Meg: Yeah,

Nikki: And both of these situations are not ideal.

Meg: and Justin is recognizing just how messed up Emma's childhood was and how it impacted her, and how it prevents her from settling down and prevents her from making these long-term attachments. And he, if he could, you know, in the same way that you were pointing out Maddy, saying if he could, he would, right?

If he could, he would go with her. He would uproot his life. He would go with her to Hawaii. He would give this a chance because he can follow her, but he really can't.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: Not won't, it's can't. He is the guardian for three kids, one of Whom's in preschool. They've gone through so much already as a family, he can't leave.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: and so the fact that he can't leave and she can't stay

Nikki: Yeah. He talk, one of the running jokes is like about like kind of accumulation and he's very hung up. You know how you get a new phone and like you save the box? She's like, what do you mean? She's like, you don't save the box to your new phone. She goes, no. Like, why would I need the new box? Have you ever needed the box?

But he's just like, no, of course I have the box.

Meg: mm-hmm.

Nikki: probably also have a drawer full of cables that you don't know what they go for. He's like, they go to something.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: Yeah. So he's like, he's an accumulator of things and people and responsibilities as much as he doesn't like it. 'cause he majorly struggles with getting the kids up every day and keeping the house clean.

And he's like, I have to work because shit's expensive and

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: don't have a ton of extra money to do all of this. They're not a wealthy family. That it's really easy, for all of this to happen. Um, so I just really also enjoy that the fact that, you know, Justin accumulates people responsibilities and stuff and Emma tries very deliberately to not, I. Even the, her one almost concession to this was her luggage because she was put in foster care and foster kids often are given garbage bags to put their things in. She goes, Nope, never gonna do that. She has these really nice pieces of luggage, and that's the only thing she's really accumulated, because every time she moves, everything she owns

Meg: All she has is these two suitcases. And even when she was living in foster care and she was living in Maddie's house and Maddie's parents were like, we want to adopt you, Emma was still holding out for Amber. And even though they could have taken those suitcases and put them in the basement and said, like, you, they're still in the house.

You can still have them. Whenever she left them underneath. The bunk bed. She left them underneath the bunk bed. She lived out of them. She had a dresser. She continued to live in the suitcases because she never felt comfortable anywhere

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: was always ready for Amber to come pick her up and take her.

Nikki: It is

Meg: God.

Nikki: It's so sad.

Meg: It's devastating, especially when you then realize just how much of a piece of shit Amber is.

Nikki: oh my God, she's, she's evil is the best word.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: you know, this big, revelation happens that Amber has lied to her her entire life and she does go very, very small. And Maddie has kind of said to Justin numerous times through like, this is what she's going to do. can't let her be by herself because she will leave.

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: we have to like, keep an eye on her because if you let her go, she will go. So when this happens, um. And, you know, uh, Neil and Amber break up and she fucking sets Neil's house on fire.

Meg: Oh my God.

Nikki: housekeeper is like, get this puta out of here. Like, I'm done with this bullshit. There's dead flowers everywhere. And Maddie takes her suitcases and she runs, but she only makes it as far as the airport hotel 'cause she's just on her island. She's like completely cracked. Dunno what to do. And of course, Maddie, being the angel on earth that she is, has put air tags in her luggage because she knows that yes, there will come a time when Emma's gonna run, but she will never leave her suitcases behind.

So she tracks her down and says, look, I know, I know you have to fix this shit, you also just can't leave Justin like this. So she does go back and say, look like I can't, I am so broken. He says like, no, I want you to stay. I want you here. And she's just like, I, no, I am not a good person right now. I am in such a bad place.

You don't even realize how bad it is. But you know what I loved after this?

Meg: That she goes and she stays with Daniel.

Nikki: She moves in with her brother and his friends, and goes to work them mother,

Meg: She gets her family and she gets to be in the grant house. She gets to be in the home where she should have been all along. You know, uh, Amber is always talking about flowers smelling like roses. And then when Emma finally gets to Grant House, she realizes that the reason that Amber is always smelling like roses and drawing roses is because Grant House has all these rosettes that are carved into the banisters that are in all of the designs around her.

So Emma feels at home there, even though she's never been there because Amber carried it with her even though she never brought Emma there. And so Emma spends six months in very intense therapy, and she works at Alexis's clinic because that's Alexis's big adjustment from her book is she moves down to Walken and she, uh, opens a clinic there instead of being at the main hospital in Minneapolis.

Um. So Emma still has a job, but she's going to therapy and she's working on herself and she's finally staying in one place. And meanwhile, Maddie's staying in one place because she falls in love with Doug, the next door neighbor, who is

Nikki: cute.

Meg: such a great character from part of your world. 'cause he just follows Alexis around with the guitarist playing more than words.

Nikki: Oh my God.

Meg: You're like, Doug, please stop. But like, perfect for Maddie. They're, they're married by the epilogue, which I love. When you get these characters that you fall in love with in two separate books who are like, oh, finally. Yay. Um, so,

Nikki: so fun.

Meg: and, and she does the work and it's really hard on Justin 'cause he's sort of like a shell of himself and you know, oh man, that moment when Emma's leaving and she says, what do you think?

She'll be like, the woman you meet after me. And it's devastating.

Nikki: my God. 'cause it's like six months

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: that she leaves and they like do not talk. And Justin does talk about how immediately after like, he's like depressed, but he's like, I got, I have to do things. So he and the kids work out new routines, you know, um, Alex gets up early to get Chelsea, her Cheerios before he goes to school so that Justin can sleep that extra hour.

And Sarah's doing her best to kind of just deal with being a teenage girl. Um, and I, I, I do think it's, what I did love about how they come back together is that six months have gone by. Emma's done a shit ton of therapy. She's like, oh yeah, I have PTSD.

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: through like EMDR and all the CBT and like all these other things.

And she's like, I am gonna go back. And she's on her way back when she that's a call from Sarah, Justin's sister, .

Meg: From the school nurse, from Sarah's school nurse. Yeah.

Nikki: And she's like, I just got my period.

Meg: And Sarah says, I knew you'd come.

Nikki: yeah.

Meg: And that's so huge in that moment, and I don't think I realized it until sort of we got through the scene. Is Sarah's been a, you know, Sarah's lost both parents, one who, who passed away, one who went to prison for her own issues. Um. And now all she has is Justin and Emma has left.

And when Emma left, it was really hard on the kids too, because it was at the same time that they were, you know her. Their mom had gone off to prison and they had lost so much in the short amount of time. But the difference is that Emma was always waiting for Amber. Emma was always waiting for Amber, couldn't get in touch with Amber, couldn't leave a phone call from a phone number.

She didn't know because it could have been Amber reaching out to her and Emma was always waiting for Amber. And then when Sarah needs Emma, she calls it because she knows Emma will come, even though it's been six months. Sarah still believes in Emma

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: and Justin still believes in Emma, even though he's starting to give up, you know, or he's given up really.

Nikki: Oh, and just imagine like to, to, to be Emma who was always waiting for someone and never trusting that they were gonna show up. That to hear, I knew you would come like. It's like, we can break generational trauma. It can, it can happen. This is what can happen. So then when she takes, uh, Sarah home and Justin is home, he works from home mostly. Um, and he thinks it's, I think Alex coming home early

Meg: Yeah,

Nikki: like, no, it's Sarah. And she's like, you need to come downstairs. And Emma is sitting on the couch and

Meg: with Chelsea, who's home sick from school.

Nikki: Yeah. And like the reaction is like, not, oh my God. Like running into her arms, babe, I missed you. It's like, oh fuck.

Meg: Well, because,

Nikki: know if I want this.

Meg: and also like Emma came home because Sarah needed her. Emma didn't come home for Justin.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: So there's this feeling of, is she only here because Sarah called her and now she's gonna leave again? 'cause I can't take her leaving again.

Nikki: Mm-hmm. then she gets to say to him, I was already coming here.

Meg: Yeah. But I love that moment of tension of him saying like, I don't want you here. If you're just gonna leave again.

Nikki: Yeah. And then like she actually, he's actually kind of says to her like, you know, I don't remember the exact word, but, so something along the lines of like, you should go essentially, like I'm, I can't do this right now. And she gets up and she's about to leave and then she goes, actually fucking no,

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: I am gonna stay.

I don't have a choice. I need to stay with you. I, I, I, I want you to know I did love you at first sight. 'cause you said you did. I did. First I just didn't know to tell you that that's what it was. 'cause I didn't know. And I was like, oh my God.

Meg: Mm.

Nikki: Then he, the soft squishy boy gets like the girl to be like, I need, I wanted you all along.

It was my bullshit. It wasn't you. And then there's a, there's something I, I highlighted this because I just, honestly, this is one of the other things that just made me fucking. Cry was the best kind of love doesn't happen on moonlit walks and romantic vacations. It happens in between the folds of everyday life.

It's not grand gestures that show how you feel. It's all the little secret things you do to make her life better and you never tell her about it. Taking the end piece of the bread at breakfast so she can have the last middle piece for her sandwich. When you pack her lunch, making sure her car always has gas so she knows, has to stop at the pump, telling her you're not cold and to take your jacket when you are, in fact very, very cold. It's watching TV on a rainy Sunday while you're doing laundry and turning her light off. When she's falling asleep. Reading, sharing pizza crats, and laughing about something the kids did and taking care of each other. When you're sick, it isn't glamorous. It isn't all butterflies and stars in your eyes.

It's real. This is the kind of love that forever is made of because if it's this good, when life is draining and mundane and hard, think of how wonderful it will be when the love songs are playing and the moon is out. Motherfucker. It's so good.

Meg: It is so beautiful, right? The prose is so beautiful because, you know, there are these books that are the huge show stopping books, but then there are the ones that are the nitty gritty, real life. You don't have a ton of extra money, you don't have everything figured out. You have responsibilities that are outside of your control, and that's where the love happens.

So yes, you can have the walks along the bridge when the proposals are happening, and you can have, but things go wrong, right? There are times where he has these amazing dates planned for her, and then shit goes wrong. Whether that's her family or his family, multiple times shit goes wrong for them and they love each other even though shit is going wrong.

And I think that that's reality. Like we can romanticize these stories and say, yes, you know, look at how beautiful these scenarios are. But. It's like, you know, a couple episodes ago we were talking about love on vacation and how love on vacation is really great because you don't have any of those responsibilities.

But then the reality sets in and this book never has, it has storybook moments, but it never has all the stars aligning

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: every something is going wrong in every scene. And that feels so much more like reality than any of these perfect scenarios. And that's when they fall in love is and, and I love like all the little ways he takes care of her and recognizes, you know, yeah, he's gonna be cold.

'cause they live in Minnesota.

Nikki: It's Uck, Minnesota. Just wait till you get to winter. It'll be great. Um,

Meg: Maybe she should have lived, no, I think she did live through a winter there like, but not with him. But she did live through a winter before she decided to move to Minnesota forever. So it's not entirely out of hand.

Nikki: Yeah. Um, and as the kind of big scene when she's shown up at the house after bringing Sarah home and. she's like, I, she had been staying with her family for six months. Justin's like, if she could have stayed anywhere for six months, why didn't she stay with me? again, this is like you, she's now proven that she can stay. It must be me and must be my situation. Um, and now she's only here because Sarah called, and she's not here because of me. And she, he's just kinda like, cool.

Meg: legit, right?

Nikki: Yeah, it was so good because what I like about this I. Neither Emma nor Justin are are evil. Neither of them make the wrong decisions. 'cause I think sometimes it's like, oh, they left.

You kind of look at the character who left and go, oh my God, you just couldn't be brave enough and if only you would like love them enough, you would've stayed. That's not the case here.

Meg: Yeah. She really needed to be.

Nikki: therapy. For the, for character growth.

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: she's fucking wrecked.

Meg: wrecked her entire life. She just found out that her entire life is built on a lie, and she needs to ground herself in her own reality before she can also take on the responsibility of not just loving Justin, but caretaking for these kids and showing up fully as herself.

And that's not something that you should do on a whim. So she did the responsible thing, even if it was heartbreaking.

Nikki: Oh, it was

Meg: All right. So Nikki, what was your favorite thing that you ship about this book?

Nikki: Um, I think it's how Justin managed Emma, and I don't want managed to make it sound like he was like. Coercing her, and he wasn't engaged, but like, he gave her out so that she could always enter into things with full knowledge.

Meg: Mm

Nikki: the pre and post-date surveys were, they're so good. But like, also things like, I brought you lunch.

There are options

Meg: mm-hmm.

Nikki: Like there's, there's a lot. Um, know, he gives her options. Like when the day before his mom goes into prison and she's out with her best friend and they get completely wasted. He's like, I'm gonna go myself. You don't have to come. And she's like, no, I will come. And, which is a change because she said all along, I don't wanna meet

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: that's a boundary for me. I don't wanna meet your family. So he, he al he takes care of her and manages her, but it does not make it feel like it's infantilizing her

Meg: Or controlling in any way.

Nikki: her as

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: you're just so emotionally damaged. I need to make things easier for you. It was just such care, like, what this really reminded me of was, oh my God, what's the character's name?

Red

Meg: I was just thinking of Red and Chloe Brown. You're gonna bring up Red and Chloe Brown, aren't you,

Nikki: it's what's his name and love hypothesis

Meg: Adam

Nikki: add, right? Yeah. Those, like, those were like what I found in, in all those books. Like the authors write their men in very similar compassionate

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: that IW was still allowing them to be very strong personalities. So for me it was definitely like Justin and how he recognized what was happening, even if he didn't know the full details and was like, cool, I'm gonna do this because it's the right thing to do, not because I'm being manipulative or weird about it.

That was me. What did you, what did you ship the most about the book? Meg?

Meg: I think it was the runner about their kiss. So they agreed before they met, okay, we're gonna do this thing. It'll be just for the summer. Over the course of six week, we'll have four dates. Here's the requirements of things that we need to complete over the course of those four dates. We need to have a kiss.

And they agreed that it needs to be an open mouth kiss, right?

Nikki: And he needs to implement it, not her

Meg: Oh, he needs to kiss her. That's right. She can't kiss him. It has to be him that initiates with her. And so he knows that the curse, they have to continue to see each other. She cannot leave until he initiates a kiss that is an open mouth kiss.

And so these dates end and he knows that he doesn't wanna stop seeing her, and he needs to sort of like keep her on the hook just a little bit. So even though he really wants to kiss her, he kisses her on the forehead,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: or he gives her like a chased kiss. No tongue, you know? And like every time he, he is, he is not manipulating her, but he's working on the situation to make sure that he's leaving her wanting a little bit more.

So that way she has to keep coming back to him. So he is drawing her in, not in like a, a sexual, like, withholding way, but just like, like a sweet, like, okay, well you'll have to wait till the next date.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: get a forehead kiss

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: and then they start calling him like, uh, I think, uh, Maddie finally meets him and she's like, oh, it's forehead kiss guy.

Because she knows, he knows then that they've been talking about forehead kiss. Right. And I love that runner. Oh, and also the runner with the toilet king,

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: the fact that they're like, hit the billboard outside of his room is the toilet king. And so he like takes her to his place to see the toilet king billboard.

And the first time that she gets to Minnesota, she's like, wait, wait, wait. Take a picture of me on the bench with the toilet king. And they wear matching toilet king shirts. Like, there's just such a, a lightness to the day to day that the overarching theme of everything that we just talked about, about, you know, parental neglect and PTSD and uh, responsibilities to your family felt very heavy.

But there was still a very playful lightness to their interactions, to their relationship that wasn't weighed down by the heaviness of the situation they were in.

Nikki: Alright, well, before we get into what we were shipping this week, you know what you should do right now to take care of us. You know, a survey would be great. Go fill out the five star review on Spotify or Apple Podcast. 'cause that would just feel real nice and I would feel so taken care of because if you wanted to, you would.

And if you don't want to, well,

Meg: You still should

Nikki: You

Meg: do it anyway.

Nikki: I'm gonna pressure you into this peer pressure.

Meg: Nikki's gonna withhold kisses. No. What? What

Nikki: you. None for you.

Meg: am I the asshole if I pressure you into leaving a, uh, rating a review on Apple Podcasts.

Nikki: no assholes here. Uh, Meg, what are you shipping this week?

Meg: I am shipping a book called Fly With Me by Andy Burke. It is an uh, women Loving Women book that while we were trying to decide what to do for Pride last month, I downloaded it and read it and it was adorable. So it is the story of Olive, who is an ER nurse. She's never flown on a plane before and

she's really nervous. Um, and if somebody has a heart attack or no, uh uh. Allergic reaction on the plane. And they do the, like, is there a medical professional on the plane? She's like, okay, got it. And someone takes a video of her saving the man, getting his EpiPens, you know, clearing his airways, doing all of this right in the front of the plane.

Um, and it goes completely viral because the person who she saved was Mickey Mouse. It was the guy who plays Mickey Mouse at Disney World, obviously. And she was on her way to run the half marathon through Disney World. And when she gets off the plane, the whole flight crew greets her and they're like, this is great.

Let's do like a PR thing. And it, I, flying the plane, the co-pilot of the plane is the hottest woman she's ever seen, Stella.

Nikki: Mm-hmm.

Meg: but they get grounded in Atlanta instead of making it all the way to Orlando. Um, and so Stella rents a car and drives Olive to, um, to Orlando and what we realize is that, um. Olive is running the half marathon for her brother, who is basically he's in a coma, he's never gonna come out of it.

And he ran the marathon the previous year and she didn't go with him. So she's going to honor him, but also her family wants to keep him on life support and she as a nurse is like, he's not coming back. So there's this tension of her family. And meanwhile, Stella is trying to get her pilot promotion.

Nikki: Hmm.

Meg: the fact that Stella and Olive are now sort of a thing have been seen together is enough of a PR boost that. Potentially it could help Stella get her promotion so they start fake dating. Um, it's really well done. It's a good reason for a fake dating, um, because Stella does want the promotion and Olive can help because she did have this really viral video come out.

But it's also, you know, deeply personal, deeply emotional because of Olive's relationship with her brother, because of Ella's relationship with her father. Um, but it's a really beautiful, beautiful romance. So highly recommend Fly with me by Andy Burke.

Nikki: oh, I love that.

Meg: Nikki, what about you? What are you shipping this week?

Nikki: is the complete opposite. It is S Muddy, S Muddy Smud. Um, so Onley James has, um, a another pen name called Nola Harker,

Meg: Ooh, it's a great pen name.

Nikki: she started writing. A serial on her Patreon. She's got a couple of them. Like she's got the Vengeful Bond series, which I think season two just came out, um, as a book, but she just released, um, today actually at the time of this recording, the Night Movers season one, which I completely, I read the full book this morning. Um, and it is mega verse, it is poly.

Meg: Whoa.

Nikki: choose, there's a lot going on here that like, normally not exactly my vibe because I like, for better or for worse, a lot of Omega verse is, there's a, there's a heavy sex component to it. Um, and it,

Meg: And often some breeding that I think you maybe don't love.

Nikki: it's, it's fine. Like it doesn't really

Meg: Mm.

Nikki: me too much.

But what Nola and as her pen name has been doing for the past week or so leading up to the release is that in her newsletter she was doing a daily email introducing the characters in terms of like their characteristics, their personality, a link to their Pinterest board so you can kind of see what they look like.

And then she would do excerpts with each of the alphas, with Ridley the Omega. The book takes place like post-apocalyptic dystopian us, where Omegas are commodities who are chipped tracked, traded, trafficked to like this is dark y'all. And you have Ridley, who's an Omega who has the gift of clairvoyance and he's trying to find his twin sister. And he has a vision that the only way he'll be able to find her is to let himself be trafficked by the same. a gang who likely trafficked his sister. But it turns out the gang that he falls in with, they're actually freeing omegas and getting them into sanctuary cities. But they are like the kings of the underworld. And this world is very like neon dystopian, post-apocalyptic. Like there's gangs, there's underground fight clubs, there's like, it's very gritty. Again, lot of sex. It's because it's poly am y. Choose. It's one Omega being shared by six Alphas at this point.

There's probably gonna be more at some point,

Meg: Mm-hmm.

Nikki: the world was really cool. The characters were really interesting and because it's a cereal, it ended on a huge fucking cliffhanger. Season two is currently happening on Patreon, so like I might let it get a little bit further ahead than go subscribe to Patreon and go

Meg: Yeah.

Nikki: But like, if you like Omega verse, if you like Polly, why choose and you like some kind of dark shit? Um, uh, check out the Night Movers season one by on Lee James writing as Nola Harker. It's very interesting.

Meg: I love it. Yeah. Very different recommendations this week, and that's why we're here. That's why we are, uh, doing this podcast is so we can share all the shit. Whatever you like. Now, come on over to our substack. Tell us what it is that you like. What are you reading right now? What do you think we should read?

We would love to hear from you, whether that's on Substack. You can shoot into our dms over, don't shoot into our dms. You can slide into our dms.

Nikki: It's

Meg: Oh.

Nikki: and slide.

Meg: Yeah, you can slide into our dms in Instagram, TikTok, tell us what you're reading. Check us out on YouTube.

Nikki: It's like August next month.

Meg: Oh my God. Summer's going too fast.

Nikki: August. So plenty of new content, uh, showing up for you next month. So keep an eye out and we will see you later. Soulmates.

Meg: Bye.

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