If You're Out There(73)

So, Zans Christian Andersen (am I losing my nickname game?). If you’re still figuring out this whole What Should I Do with My Life thing this time next year, think you could be figuring it out on the East Coast?

I’ll probably pester you with a few more of these before I log off for the night. But for now, miss you absurd, stupid amounts, O Zanny Boy.



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From: Priya Patel <[email protected]> To: Zan Martini <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Aug 30, 8:34 am

Subject: CONSIDERING BUTT IMPLANTS!!!

Eh? Did that one hook ya? No?



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From: Priya Patel <[email protected]> To: Zan Martini <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Aug 30, 8:37 am

Subject: I REALLY COULD COOK METH YOU KNOW!

I might! You’ll remember, I was very good in AP chem. C’EST POSSIBLE! You don’t know! . . . Anything?



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From: Priya Patel <[email protected]> To: Zan Martini <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Aug 30, 8:40 am

Subject: THAT’S IT. I’M DONE WITH BACON!

Well, that one I’m sure you knew was a lie.



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From: Zan Martini <[email protected]> To: Priya Patel <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Aug 30, 8:59 am Subject: Re: THAT’S IT. I’M DONE WITH BACON!

Ahaha I’m here! I’m not gonna to read all that yet because I need to see your face—DO NOT LOG OFF! Long story but we JUST got power back. The kids may fight me for this computer but so help me GOD I’m Skyping you now. Stand by!



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From: Zan Martini <[email protected]> To: Priya Patel <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Aug 30, 9:02 am

Subject: Re: THAT’S IT. I’M DONE WITH BACON!

Damn you, internet. Work! Trying again. Also, where’d you go? I would feel better with confirmation that you are still there. Are you still there???



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From: Zan Martini <[email protected]> To: Priya Patel <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Aug 30, 9:04 am

Subject: Re: THAT’S IT. I’M DONE WITH BACON!

YESSSS! It’s ringing!!!!!! God we have so much to talk about. Are you there? Well? Are you???



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From: Priya Patel <[email protected]> To: Zan Martini <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Aug 30, 9:04 am

Subject: Re: THAT IS IT! I’M DONE WITH BACON!

Yeah, ZanaBanana.

I’m here.





Acknowledgments


I am an emotional person with the very best people and there aren’t enough pages to express my thanks, but I will try.

Jennifer Mattson, my agent, thank you for believing in me, and this book, and for being generally lovely and hilarious. I can’t imagine having a better person in my corner. What a journey it has been!

Donna Bray, you brilliant mind, you! Never have I had so much fun writing as I have going back and forth with you. I am in awe of your brain, and so grateful for the fact that you somehow managed to make this book feel even more “me” than I thought possible. Thank you for everything.

To the many publishing masterminds who helped make this thing a book, I am forever in your debt. Bethany Reis, Laura Harshberger, Michelle Taormina, Alison Donalty, Bess Braswell, Aubrey Churchward, Patty Rosati, Alessandra Balzer, Tiara Kittrell, and the rest of the Harper team, thank you thank you thank you! The same goes for Taryn Fagerness, my foreign rights agent, and Philip Pascuzzo, for giving me the cover art of my dreams.

Huge weepy thanks to my amazing friends, from Cambridge to Bowdoin, Chicago to Brooklyn, who I thought of so much while writing this book. You are the people who grew alongside me at all different stages of life, and who always seem to click in no matter how long it’s been or how far apart we may be. I am especially grateful to the very gentle friends who read early drafts (Alex, Rebecca, Sara, Abby, and Julia), and to the many more who were therapists and cheerleaders through this process. I’m so lucky to have you guys.

To Nicole Panteleakos, who I met, by some miracle, just weeks after moving to New York, both of us nannies on a playground in the right place at the right time. All I can say is, where on earth would I be without you? You taught me how to Twitter, and what a query was, and sat beside me in cafes across Brooklyn while we both scrapped old projects and tried again. I’m so happy to have gone down this road with you. I still can’t believe we got offers on the same day.

To my whole extended family, thank you for your love, encouragement, and support. You are the best, and I have no doubt that the Loutzenhiser/Catt/Christo/Addisons will have significant influence over the sales of this book. (Also, Gram, I still use my LOL mug from you every day at my desk, and consider it to be my writing good luck charm.)

Little Peter, my much-cooler-than-me teenage brother, thank you for being such a great kid, and for putting up with the never-ending book discussions. I hope we never stop watching movies and playing board games, and I fully expect you to continue keeping me relevant as I get older.

Big Peter, thank you for being a friend and for all those trips to the Inn.