The Bump - Softcover

Karger, Sidney

 
9780593439500: The Bump
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0593439503 ISBN 13: 9780593439500
Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2024

Inhaltsangabe

"With a fresh mix of Little Miss Sunshine and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, The Bump takes us on a laugh-out-loud and moving adventure. Wyatt and Biz are such vivid, relatable characters to root for as they navigate love and family with tears and hilarity. It's another sweet book from Sid and I didn't want this fun ride to end!"—Molly Shannon, New York Times bestselling author, comedian, and actress

Two men expecting a baby via surrogate go on the road trip of a lifetime in this hilarious and poignant novel by Sidney Karger, author of Best Men.

Wyatt Wallace is a practical, super organized director of TV commercials. Biz Petterelli is a child-actor-turned-magazine-writer who thrives on spontaneity. Though polar opposites, they are fully committed to their relationship and their life in Brooklyn with their dog, Matilda. They’re also about to have a baby together.

And they’re freaking out.

They’ve both dreamed of becoming parents, but now that it’s happening, they’re doubting everything. Their baby is due in a few weeks and instead of flying to California just before the birth as planned, Biz has a better idea. They could use one last hurrah, along with some serious “us-time” to mend the issues they’ve been having lately—before they get tied down by fatherhood and its impending responsibilities. So the daddies-to-be load up their 1992 Volkswagen Cabriolet and embark on an epic cross-country babymoon. They attempt to recharge at the beach in Provincetown, stumble through their impromptu baby shower in Chicago, and endure a Star Wars-themed wedding in Colorado before heading west for the baby.
 
But when they take several unexpected detours, old wounds are reopened and secrets spill out that could change their relationship for better or for worse, forcing the couple to reexamine the meaning of family while building their own. After all, what’s a road trip without a few bumps along the way?

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Sidney Karger is an award-winning screenwriter for film and television. His debut novel Best Men was published in 2023 and featured on Good Morning America, The Today Show and Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. He currently lives in New York City with his partner and their Australian Labradoodle, Zelda.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

1

Wyatt

ONE AND A HALF Years Later

I'm starting to wonder if my boyfriend and I are going to make it. Not like will our crappy little car with our adorable but anxious mini-Airedale terrier in the back seat drive us from Brooklyn cross-country to California in time for the arrival of our baby. I mean I'm worried we aren't going to make it as a couple.

This morning as we suffer through early summer traffic just outside of New York, much later than the schedule I'd planned, I glance in the rearview mirror to see Matilda looking back at me with literal puppy dog eyes as she lets out a single piercing yelp.

"This is exactly what I did not want to happen," I say, flipping on my turn signal.

"Didn't want what to happen?" Biz asks, raising his bushy eyebrows and aiming his soulful green eyes at me.

"She looks like she's about to be sick," I say, gripping the wheel tightly.

"We just left Brooklyn. There's no way she's going to be sick," Biz says.

"We've been starting and stopping for an hour. Even I'm feeling a little barfy. If we'd left at the time I wanted, we would've avoided all this traffic."

"I'm sorry I made us five minutes late."

"Twenty minutes," I correct him.

"You're cute when you're stressed but . . ." Biz turns to look at Matilda moving in circles around her bed. "Don't freak out yet. She's just trying to get comfortable."

The cars in front of us finally start to crawl so I weave us toward an exit ramp.

"Where are we going?" Biz asks. The same question I've been asking myself lately.

"I just want to be safe," I say as I exit the highway, turning onto a gravel road.

We both climb out of the car. Biz grabs the leash. "I'll take her for a walk," he offers, leading Matilda out of the back seat toward a nearby forest. "She probably just has to pee."

"She can do whatever business she needs to do right here," I say, holding the other end of the leash. "She doesn't need to go in a forest. There are ticks in there."

"I'm not taking her in the forest. We'll go forest adjacent," Biz insists.

As we stand there, both competitively pulling the leash in opposite directions, Matilda throws up at our feet.

We look down and then back up at each other.

"Why do you do that?" I ask Biz, pulling doggie wipes from Matilda's bag and crouching down to gently wipe our dog's mouth. "You're okay, girl," I whisper in Matilda's ear.

"Do what?" Biz asks, massaging Matilda's chin. She shuts her eyes and lets out a sigh, comforted by her two dads.

"Always say the opposite of what I say."

"I do not say the opposite of what you say. You say the opposite of what I say." Biz sighs, getting frustrated.

"You just proved my point."

"Sometimes Matilda has to pee, other times she's carsick," Biz says, standing up. "How did I know which one she would choose this morning?"

"This isn't about our dog being sick, Biz. This is about me saying one thing and you saying another lately. I can't tell if you're being contrarian on purpose or not." I take control of the leash and Matilda once and for all.

"You were right. She was carsick, okay?" Biz says. "And don't say contrarian."

"Again, it's not about being carsick."

"Then what is it?" Biz asks.

I look at Biz and can't decide if I want to start our road trip by telling him what I think has been happening to us while standing in the middle of Westchester.

Biz has been trying to have as much fun as possible before the baby comes like it's his job. This road trip wasn't my idea. Biz wants a vacation, a chance to blow off some steam before our lives change forever. He keeps calling it a "babymoon."

Biz's determination to let loose is concerning me. It feels like he doesn't want the responsibility, or worse, like he's changing his mind entirely about being a father.

I would've preferred to fly to California for the birth like we had planned, but I compromised. I decided I could turn this trip into a chance for us to reconnect and see eye to eye.

"I'll take her for a quick walk for some fresh air," I say.

"Fine," Biz barks out. "See? We agree!" he says, as I turn to lead Matilda along the edge of the forest.

We weren't always this out of sync. Walking our dog through a patch of untamed grass while cars whiz by on the overpass, I think about the trips we've taken every summer along this same highway to our beloved Provincetown, the crown jewel of Cape Cod, when Biz and I were more relaxed with each other.

Usually, at this point in our drive, we'd start to feel the city melt away as we motored toward our special place, singing at the top of our lungs to Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" and whatever summer playlist that Biz made.

The first time we drove to Provincetown together as a couple, we stopped at our favorite coffee shop before leaving the city. They screwed up our order so the generous barista threw in two free slices of lemon-blueberry pound cake. Every trip after that, we made that pound cake our annual summer tradition, always laughing at how surprisingly delicious it tasted. This time though, we didn't stop at our coffee shop and our favorite pastry is a distant memory.

Ever since we officially chose our egg donor, the stress of building a family via surrogacy has taken ahold of us. To keep up with the finances, I've had to squirrel away as many directing gigs as possible.

In the past two months there was the Mucinex commercial I directed in LA, the Home Depot commercial in Atlanta and three commercials I shot back-to-back in Toronto for a bank. Or maybe it was a credit union? It's honestly all a blur.

I'm a storyteller. I tell stories. Sure, the stories I tell are dopey commercials no one pays attention to anymore, so you can continue watching the thing you want to watch in the first place, but they're still stories. They have a beginning, middle and end. There's always some kind of hero and a villain. Sometimes the stories are funny. Or clever. Or emotional, designed to pull at your heartstrings.

If I could tell longer stories, I would. I'd love to direct a James Bond-type movie with a gay twist, or maybe a prestige TV thriller about a detective investigating a murder while trying to pick up the pieces of her own messy life, but I'm not at that point in my career yet.

A couple days ago I directed another thirty-second story, this one about a dad who playfully steals his ten-year-old son's bagel and cream cheese. The son was our hero. The dad was kind of the villain, but in the end, he redeems himself.

To get the most out of the kid's performance, I channeled what little memories I have of my relationship with my own father when I was a kid, before he left us.

The best Christmas I ever had was when I was about six years old, and my parents woke up my brother and me, led us downstairs to the tree, and my father put his hands the size of dinner plates over my eyes. When I opened them, I saw a mountain of presents. I'd never been so excited in my life. It was the last Christmas I'd celebrated with my parents together.

So I told the kid actor to pretend the bagel was the best Christmas present his parents ever gave him. The kid nailed his performance. That probably seems like a lot of emotion just for a Philadelphia Cream Cheese commercial but I like to tell these mini stories with everything I have in my toolbox.

Truth be told, if I never hear "It's cheesy AND creamy!" ever again, I would be a happy man. That tagline the kid had to say over and over, until the client thought his energy was just right, reverberates in my brain like a bad one-hit wonder.

The story of Biz and I began when we met twelve years ago. We haven't been apart since.

But now I'm not sure which one of us is the hero and which...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
Penguin Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2024
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0593439503
ISBN 13 
9780593439500
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
368
Kontakt zum Hersteller
BERKLEY
https://www.penguin.com/?s=BERKLEY

Unit 2 Limavady Business Park
Limavady
County Londonderry
BT49 0HR
Vereinigtes Königreich
Verantwortliche Person
preigu
mail@preigu.de

Lengericher Landstr. 19
Osnabrück
49078
Deutschland

Weitere beliebte Ausgaben desselben Titels

9780008588755: The Bump: the equally hilarious and romantic queer rom-com for summer 2024

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  0008588759 ISBN 13:  9780008588755
Verlag: HarperCollins, 2024
Softcover