Olivia is Anna Wintour’s worst nightmare, and she doesn’t give a sh**. She’s wanted to go into fashion design her whole life, and nothing is going to stop her fabulous plus sized self. Not even her boss from hell, or the fact that she’s the fat Cinderella of the most exclusive lingerie store in Bushwick, Ohio. She’s sworn off dating, because she is focused, dammit, and will not get distracted by anyone in college. She has sh** to do and places to go, be it on her own with the clothing she makes, or with the girls in Twelve Beats In A Bar, the all-female a cappella group she’s part of.

Why do group projects always have to ruin everything?

Thierry Acosta has it all. Shortstop on Bushwick University’s baseball team, amazing grades in college, everything he could want. When he gets paired with Olivia for a group project, things are only getting better. And then his dad loses his job, and Thierry’s life falls apart. He can’t manage to get himself to practice, to class… anywhere. He’s got the scars on his wrists to prove that this has happened before, but he thought he was better. He thought he could deal with something like this. The cuts on his thighs say otherwise.

Before they know it, Olivia and Thierry’s relationship has gone from casual project partners to not-so-casual more-than-friends. But when things take a turn for the worse, can they face the growing reality of a relationship that’s become much serious than either of them expected - or wanted?

Excerpt

I flop down at one of the tables near the middle of the room. “Okay. So, what are we doing this project on?”

Olivia pulls out a notebook and an enormous purple pen. “Something that neither of us give a sh** about.”

“Well, I don’t know what you do give a sh** about, so how am I supposed to know what you don’t give a sh** about?”

“Same goes with you. No, wait. I know you like baseball.”

I laugh. “Good job. Do you?”

“Nah, not specifically.”

“Do you like any sports?”

“Curling.”

“Curling?” I repeat. “Like, the sport, or curling your hair?”

Olivia giggles. “Well, I do like curling my hair, but I was talking about the sport.”

“That’s…kinda random.”

“That’s why I like it. Also, because when you describe it, you sound like you’re describing a game that a bunch of five year olds like, and yet, it’s an Olympic sport.”

“So, you like the irony of it?”

“Yep. And the fact that their team uniforms are consistently hideous.”

“Okay. So, curling and baseball are on the list of things we give a sh** about.”

Olivia draws three columns on the page, and labels one Thierry, one Olivia, and one ”We don’t give a sh**.”

“Okay, then. Do you like any other sports besides baseball?”

“Soccer. Um, martial arts, although I don’t really know if that’s a sport.”

Olivia shrugs. “I have no clue. I’m not really into martial arts, but I’m cool with self-defense, which I guess could be the same thing.” She scribbles it down in the notebook. “Okay, how do you feel about math?”

“That’s kind of too broad of a category.”

“Hmmm.” Olivia pulls out her phone. “Okay, so, Googling local commercials. Ooh—how do you feel about taxidermy?”

I laugh. “I think it’s kind of funny. And a little gross.”

“Huh. Me, too. Hmmm. How do you feel about blow-drier gloves?”

“That’s not actually a thing.” I get up to peer over her shoulder.

“It is. There’s an infomercial and everything.”

“That’s what we should do!” I exclaim. “Well, not the blow drier part—the infomercial part.”

“I don’t know—I guess it depends on what we’re going to do. It would be funny if we took something that you’d think would be an infomercial-y kind of product and do some super high class marketing.”

“Like blow drying gloves?”

“Yup.” Olivia’s getting excited. “It would be hilarious.”

“Okay, so we have to think of something that could be super expensive, but wouldn’t really make sense for it to be.”

“Plastic dishes,” Olivia promptly replies. “There are some designer dishes that are plastic.”

“Seriously?”

“Honey. I read every magazine Conde Nast puts out cover-to-cover. I don’t know sh** about baseball, but I know obscure designer items. Trust me on this one.”

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About KK Hendin

KK Hendin’s real life ambition is to become a pink fluffy unicorn who dances with rainbows. But the schooling for that is all sorts of complicated, so until that gets sorted out, she’ll just write. Preferably things with angst and love. And things that require chocolate. She’s the author of the NA contemporaries HEART BREATHS and ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG.
THIS MUCH SPACE is the second book in her new series, TWELVE BEATS IN A BAR.
KK spends way too much time on Twitter (where she can be found as @kkhendin), and rambles on occasion over at www.kkhendinwrites.blogspot.com.

You can connect with KK via Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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