Never Been Better - Softcover

Simpson, Leanne Toshiko

 
9780593714782: Never Been Better
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0593714784 ISBN 13: 9780593714782
Verlag: Penguin Publishing Group, 2024

Inhaltsangabe

A hilariously offbeat and tender comedy about one bipolar woman’s messy search for love at a seaside wedding where no one can stay afloat.

Is she falling in love, or falling apart?

Dee, Misa, and Matt were the "three musketeers" of the psych ward. A year after discharge, Dee is eager to convince everyone that she’s finally turning things around. But Matt and Misa are tying the knot in Turks and Caicos, surrounded by guests who have no idea where they met, and the secrecy isn’t sitting well with Dee, who has been hopelessly in love with Matt since before she got kicked out of the hospital.

So, when Dee arrives at the swanky resort with her high-voltage sister, Tilley, it’s now or never to confess how she feels. But disrupting her best friends’ nuptials would jeopardize the entire support system that holds the trio together. When it comes to happily ever afters, how is a girl supposed to choose between love and recovery?

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

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Leanne Toshiko Simpson is a mixed-race Yonsei writer who lives with bipolar disorder. Named Scarborough’s Emerging Writer in 2016 and nominated for the Journey Prize in 2019, she co-founded a reflective writing program at Canada’s largest mental health hospital and teaches at the University of Toronto. Never Been Better is her debut novel.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

1

"Crazy in Love"
-Beyoncé ft. Jay-Z (3:56)

When my invitation for Matt and Misa's destination wedding arrived in the mail, Tilley pinned it to the dartboard in our kitchen.

"'Accept with pleasure or decline with regret,'" she snorted as she read. "Why is there never a check box for 'drain the open bar with relative apathy'? Especially if they're not even giving you a plus-one."

She yanked a couple of darts from the board and took five steps backward, bumping into the kitchen table. Narrowing her eyes, she whipped a single dart at the wall, then turned to me, noticing my pursed lips. "Are you okay?"

I surveyed the damage. My sister had punctured the palm tree crest, but the perfectly staged photo of Matt and Misa on the invitation remained intact. Burly in an ink-blue suit, Matt had his arms wrapped around Misa, who was beaming in a blush satin dress. She glanced over her shoulder at him with a warmth that made me think of breakfast in bed, shared bottles of dinner wine, joint bank accounts-all the things I could barely imagine for myself.

"He looks like he's going to absorb her," murmured Tilley, suddenly beside me. "Like a matrimonial sponge."

"It's fine," I said a little too loudly. "I'm fine. I knew this was coming. I have prepared myself for this moment for months. Actually, excuse me because I have to go do this thing in the bathroom."

I could feel the bad thoughts coming, so I panicked and deeply bowed at Tilley before speed-walking out of the kitchen and down the hall to our shared bathroom. Keep your cool. Keep your cool. I slammed the door just as I heard Tilley let out the largest sigh known to humankind. Ignoring her clomping footsteps coming toward me and the waterfalls building in my eyeballs, I scrounged through the medicine cabinet for a very old bottle of Listerine. Hands shaking, I poured a full serving into the lid, then scrunched my face as I tipped the shot of antiseptic into my mouth.

Tilley knocked on the door. "Dee, can I come in?"

"Nrghh," I said, swishing furiously. The mouthwash burned and my eyes teared up, but it felt good to control the discomfort. I spat into the sink, stuck my tongue out, and poured another capful.

"Okay, so I mostly asked if I could come in to be polite, but you know I had to take the lock off the door after the last incident," Tilley continued. "So, I'm going to come in now, and I want you to promise me that you're not doing anything . . . you know, suicide-y?"

I swished faster in defiance. "Nrghhh, nrghhh!"

Tilley swung the door open and bashed me with it as I stuck my arm out to hold it shut. I couldn't manage a mouthful of chemicals and a bruised elbow, so I turned and spat into the sink again. Tilley stared at the open bottle of Listerine, then back at me, and folded her arms.

"What?" I said. "Can't a girl value good dental hygiene?"

"Tell me you're not doing some weird self-punishment thing right now."

"I don't know," I said, sticking my head under the tap for a quick drink of water before elaborating. "I was trying to frame it like exposure therapy. Like maybe I'll handle the wedding better if I get really good at being uncomfortable."

"Dee, you met these people in a psych ward," she said into the mirror, examining her nose pores. "I think between the three of you, you've already got the uncomfortable thing covered."

I opened my mouth to retort but nothing came out. It had been many months since my discharge, and I still didn't know how to tell Tilley that I'd never been more at home than in the hospital with Matt and Misa.

She watched my shoulders droop in the reflection of the glass, then turned and threw her arms around me. "Hey. I'm not saying it's a bad thing," she mumbled into my shoulder. "You'd have killer small talk for cocktail hour."

"Who needs it?" I said, gently disentangling myself from her grasp. "I'm sure everyone will be busy gossiping about the whirlwind engagement."

"I guess there's no established pipeline from involuntary commitment to marital commitment, especially in the span of a single year."

"Most of the guests only know half the story," I said. "Misa didn't even tell her family where they really met."

Tilley arched an eyebrow. "So you're just going to show up as a physical manifestation of their biggest secret?"

I gestured helplessly toward the bottle of mouthwash. "Like I could even make it through the flight without having a total breakdown. I want to be there for them. And, you know, be halfway normal. But I don't know if I have it in me."

"If you're not well enough, they'll understand better than anyone," she said, her voice softening just a touch.

"It's not that," I said, pouring one last cup of Listerine for good measure. "It's just that I'd rather shave off my eyebrows than watch Matt Costigan marry someone else."

As the final shot of noxious mint hit the underside of my tongue, I couldn't help but notice Tilley's pained expression in the mirror-as if she too was battling both gingivitis and certain heartbreak.


Here are five good reasons why I-and not Misa-should have ended up with Matt:

                1.            Dibs.

Not to brag or anything, but I wound up in the psych ward first. On night one, Matt rolled into the hospital with bandages wound around his forearms and a crooked smile that lit up the ER. Ruggedly handsome and built like a teddy bear, he wore two hospital gowns tied together at the waist for comfort.

"I'm making a fashion statement," he said when he noticed me staring from the cafeteria. He was the first shiny thing I had seen in such a long time, and I wanted to scoop him up like a magpie, take him back to my depressing white hospital room.

                2.            We can laugh about anything . . .

"What are you in for?" I asked, like I was auditioning for Prison Break.

"I decided to play my last live show yesterday," he replied breezily. "Only problem is my band interpreted last as 'hang up your guitar' and not 'slice yourself open after the encore.' Bit of a miscommunication on my part, I guess."

I nodded emphatically. "Semantics, am I right?"

                3.            But still get to the heart of a conversation.

I told Matt how I threw myself-winter coat and all-into the swimming pool where I taught little kids how to blow bubbles just to see if I would sink. "I only did it because I thought I was immortal," I explained.

"Well, I don't know about that," he said, his eyes crinkling. "But you must be pretty tough to wind up here the first time and put a good spin on it. That's a different kind of endurance, if you ask me."

                4.            We've always made a great team.

"Lucie does the best bloodwork, but Marc does a mean Robert De Niro impression," Matt explained as we sprawled across the common room sofa. "So, it's all about what you want out of your tax dollars."

"You sure know your way around here," I said.

He grinned wryly. "I guess you could call me a repeat customer. The last few years haven't been the easiest." He scratched at one of his bandages. "You know, the first time I landed here, I thought this place would change my life. That it would be...

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Verlag
Penguin Publishing Group
Erscheinungsdatum
2024
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0593714784
ISBN 13 
9780593714782
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
288
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

Friedensallee 273
Hamburg
22763
Deutschland

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