Transcript
Meggie: Hello and welcome to Yaoi Reddit. I am your host, Maggie.
Laura Petro: And I'm also your host. My name is Laura.
Meggie: And we are doing a very special one-off. We are doing Emily Henry's People We Meet on Vacation because obviously it is just a Netflix movie with Tom Blythe, Very Hot Man, and Emily...
Meggie: Emily B... Is that her name?
Laura Petro: i er i think it's Emily Bader.
Meggie: I was going to say Emily Bader, but then I was like...
Laura Petro: I think it is. the the girl from My Lady Jane.
Meggie: i was like, is that the name of someone that...
Laura Petro: I'm happy that she's getting her like her heyday right now. i don't know her name off the top of my head.
Meggie: She is so good Well, when I started saying Emily Bader, I got really confused and I thought that I was shouting out someone that I used to go to college with. And I think it might be.
Laura Petro: think her name's Emily Bader. i Maybe we're butchering this and everyone's going to comment being like, what the hell, you guys? were like Yeah, what the hell, you guys?
Meggie: They're going to do that thing My still favorite review is the five stars and then correcting us on Hunger Games. That's still one of my favorite reviews.
Laura Petro: I, my favorite thing about like us taking criticism is we'll so easily join the popularity to just be like, yeah, know what the fuck were they talking about? and they're like, what? No, it's you guys did the problem.
Laura Petro: We're like, yeah, what the hell you guys?
Meggie: What the hell? Well, the problem is you can't hate on me because I hate myself enough. And then we have common ground.
Laura Petro: Exactly.
Meggie: Now we're best friends.
Laura Petro: Sorry. Sorry, everybody. Maggie and Laura have low self-esteem. Can't say anything meaner than what we already say to ourselves. And we agree with you.
Meggie: but Oh, you don't like me? don't like me We have something in common. We're friends. Now we're friends.
Laura Petro: Oh, crazy. Yeah. Oh.
Laura Petro: yeah
Meggie: i love Emily Henry. I am a recent Emily Henry dive in. I think I started in the fall because i read Funny Story and then I was like, oh, finally a book of hers is becoming a movie.
Meggie: So then I read People We Meet on Vacation and it's, i her writing is so flawless.
Laura Petro: yeah
Meggie: I think it captures how people speak so well.
Laura Petro: It's, it's so nuanced. No, I'm, I'm new into the Emily Henry sphere. I saw the people when we got on vacation was coming out me year in the book and I was like, I'll read the book too and we can talk about it. Uh, but then I finished this and immediately Liz like what other books of hers can I read? Internet, please tell
Meggie: i think that book lovers is going to have ashley simone bridgerton season two's hottest woman alive and manny just you know from the good place isn't that such a hot couple i think it's not confirmed but it should be confirmed
Laura Petro: uh,
Laura Petro: That's so amazing. I'll die We should warrant that this episode is going to be a little bit different. We're not going to go like chapter by chapter, page by page.
Laura Petro: This is going to be more of like a stream of conscious episode. And we're also going to talk about the movie a little bit because I think we both watched it. So we're really just kind of flying by the seat of our pants that that should be on the record.
Meggie: yeah let Laura and I have a passion project okay our 30 listeners
Laura Petro: Oh, let Maggie and Laura read a book for fun, which is always what we do, but also read the movie but watch the movie and talk about it.
Meggie: exactly we're straying from young adult but I think that romance technically to me it's in the same wheelhouse oh my god
Laura Petro: If we removed all of the sex scenes, it would be YA. the That's really the line.
Meggie: And I can't wait to talk about the sex scene in this one.
Laura Petro: That's really the line. And you know what? we've we've we've we've We've, you know, flew too close to the sun and read pure A before and we're going to do it again.
Meggie: I mean, it's so funny that we went down the light lark. I'm sorry, now we're getting on a tangent, but the light lark and it said a young adult and then it was just the rawest sex scenes ever.
Laura Petro: Honestly, really love that Alex Astor was like, you know what? Nah, I'm full on adult now. She's 20. Let's go for it.
Meggie: I mean, that's kind of what it's like. You turn like 19, 20, and you're like, I gotta fuck everything.
Laura Petro: mean.
Meggie: You're like a dog scooting his ass on the rug.
Laura Petro: the in
Meggie: My prolapsed anus.
Laura Petro: Is that is that the metaphor you want to use?
Meggie: Yeah, I'm just scooting my ass all over the rug. And if I had to rate people we meet on vacation on a scale of 1 to 10 ass scooting, I would say, would give it a 6, I think.
Meggie: I think I'm crawling and then scooting.
Laura Petro: Okay, is the ass-scooting... I'm sorry, we have to break this down. Is this ass-scooting scale of how much sex there is in the book or how horny the book made you in comparison to when you were like 19 20?
Meggie: How horny.
Laura Petro: Okay.
Meggie: The ass scooting is not a good metaphor. I think saying how often you crack the spine, that is actually my romance book test. And I will explain the crack spine rating. This is Maggie's rating. I am trademarking this because I think it's so smart. It is how often you crack the spine at parts in the romance book so you can hold it in one hand and masturbate with the other hand.
Meggie: And if it passes, like you've really cracked the spine, that's a really good book for Maggie.
Laura Petro: Maggie, you've revealed so much about yourself in this episode. it was very vulnerable of you.
Meggie: I am going to edit that. I want that soundbite too. Okay. So anyways, Jesus, it's been five minutes. We're going to get into it so the book opens with an epilogue.
Laura Petro: we have to talk about the people we meet on vacation. Oh my god.
Meggie: It is five summers ago. Poppy Wright is teasing that she kind of knows this guy that she's meeting at a bar and they're role playing. And shocker, it's her and Alex just like kind of spontaneously having a little banter to be like, hey, we're friends we need to full flirt and learn how to flirt with other people.
Meggie: But basically... Listen, Poppy is in this epilogue. She is on a vacation with Alex. She runs a travel blog that got kind of famous. So now she works at this place, R&R.
Meggie: And Alex is a high school English teacher back living back in their hometown of Linton, Ohio. And they just had like a decade long friendship.
Laura Petro: Yeah, and one of my, I think, favorite ways this book was written was telling it both in flashbacks and in the present. Because every other chapter, you're either in the current timeline or it's going back to one of their vacations.
Meggie: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Laura Petro: Because Alex is obviously this very like, worry war, quiet guy who really comes out of his shell with like Poppy, who is very like outlandish and quirky and noncommittal. But they they like almost have what each other needs. So it really balances out really well.
Meggie: Yeah, they it's classic black cat, golden retriever kind of dynamic. They have a really good back and forth at one point during the book where she says something like, i didn't realize, or like, I was so lonely until I met you.
Meggie: And he says, I didn't realize how lonely I was until I met you. So they really balance each other out. She brings out his weird
Laura Petro: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Meggie: naked alex as she says and alex just is kind of you know someone's got to anchor the manic pixie dream girl someone's got to do it
Laura Petro: who
Laura Petro: so Someone's got to do it. And the whole thing that we like learn about Poppy and Alex in the present timeline is they're not really friends anymore. Something happened on their like last trip together a couple of years ago.
Laura Petro: So they just kind haven't spoken since because that's also the type of people they are to not talk about their feelings at all, which is so frustrating, but also can't get enough of as a reader. I was like, oh my God, just talk about it.
Laura Petro: Jesus Christ. Yeah.
Meggie: I just feel like by the time it's 12 years, i think by year four or five, we gotta we ought to nip it in the bud.
Laura Petro: really
Laura Petro: We can't like it's it's like you got it. You got to figure it out. You got to figure it out. But they did it.
Meggie: Yes.
Laura Petro: Well, and then they did. But.
Meggie: They didn't.
Laura Petro: Mm
Meggie: So they start with the epilogue. It is a flashback. And then in present day, like Laura said, they're not talking. We don't know why. Alex, back home, Poppy, actual travel journalist, she is at this rest and relaxation place.
Meggie: And her boss is Swapna, is her name.
Laura Petro: hmm.
Meggie: And she is jamille Jamila Jamil in the movie.
Laura Petro: And the movie, yes.
Meggie: Very, you know, high class, fancy girl. She's now on Substack. She's writing stuff. I haven't read any of it. But sometimes her internet presence is pretty funny. Doesn't have anything to do.
Laura Petro: Oh, Jamila Jamil.
Meggie: Yeah.
Laura Petro: No, that's exciting for i didn't know that. But anyway, the the the plot of this book kicks off when, you know Poppy, she's kind of stuck in a rut. She's like I don't know. kind of got all my goals. I'm living in a big city, but I'm not happy. So with the help of her friend Rachel, she's like, I'm going text Alex again and just kind of like feel the waters because I miss my best friend. And, you know, they kind of fall into the old rhythm with each other of like, we're still friends.
Meggie: Yeah, it's really funny and I wish that I had this problem because Poppy is realizing the last time that she was happy it was two years ago with him. Very nice. But she's realizing she's unhappy because she's met all her goals in life.
Meggie: And now she just kind of turn it doesn't like have any passion, which that would be awesome. I would love to have that problem personally.
Laura Petro: yeah yeah I feel like it is relatable in your though to be like what do I want out of my life that's what I was really taking from it because that's a so tea with me right now I'm like what the fuck am I doing i don't know
Meggie: Oh, for sure.
Meggie: know, when you're at cool places, you're like, is it worth it to work here? I'm not feeling fulfilled. So...
Laura Petro: yeah exactly because it's like oh right because I'm still working in a capitalistic society that's crazy
Meggie: Amen. Snaps. So Poppy and Alex, they rekindle their little friendship.
Laura Petro: Yes.
Meggie: She breaks the ice because, yeah, two years ago in Croatia, something happened. We don't know what. And Alex keeps responding with like a photo of himself that makes her laugh a lot. And then also he updates her that Flannery O'Connor, his cat, is dead. And so is his grandma. And she's like, wow, I've missed out on so much of his life.
Laura Petro: Yeah, and Poppy to kind of lasso Alex back in, she finds out that he's going to his brother's wedding, so she's going to pitch to her magazine that, you know, she should do a weekend trip where the wedding's being held, and Alex and her can go on this trip and have fun again, and then Alex can go to the wedding, and then everything will be back to normal, and she'll have her best friend back.
Laura Petro: But the only thing is Swapna doesn't go for this, like, Palm Springs trip that she pitches, So Poppy lies to Alex and decides to pay for the entire trip herself.
Meggie: crazy
Laura Petro: Lie, huge lie. But also, i get it. i feel like if I missed my best friend that much, I would really do jump through any hoop. But again, why didn't she just tell him like, hey, i want to go back to my travel blog lifestyle and I'm just going to fund this entire thing ourselves because I really want to do it.
Laura Petro: That's all she had to do.
Meggie: I know and it's also I guess it's not big enough of a lie that if he figured out he'd probably just be like Okay.
Laura Petro: yeah
Meggie: Well, actually, i would be like, why did you, you know, it would come to a head.
Laura Petro: Yeah, again, it's weird how long she kept up the lie. And i get I get the hesitancy that we'll get to when we get to it. But I digress.
Meggie: Yeah.
Laura Petro: Anyway, they go on this trip, Palm Springs, etc.
Meggie: They go on this trip. It's interspaced with how they met, which is pretty non-monumental. It's just they met at, it's University of Chicago, I believe, in the movie.
Laura Petro: yeah
Laura Petro: It is. In the book, and University of chart Chicago in the book, in the movie, it's University of Boston or Baltimore.
Meggie: The end of the book?
Meggie: Boo! Keep it in the Midwest! Linfield, Ohio!
Laura Petro: I don't know. They made some weird changes in the movie that I'm sure were just due to budgeting constraints, but at the same time...
Meggie: okay but why did they change his brother's partner's name from Tam to I truly don't know.
Laura Petro: I have no idea.
Meggie: i don't know, but it's basically you've got probably watched the movie. it's They just meet at a college orientation. They don't really get along. And then one of their friends, Bonnie, like sets them up to have a carpool.
Meggie: And then they become friends.
Laura Petro: And that does technically happen in the book, but it's different.
Meggie: It's different. They do – I don't know if I would agree to like be like, hey, this carpool was going so well. So why don't we not only go to karaoke together, what if we took a vacation this summer together?
Meggie: I would be hesitant –
Laura Petro: That's. See, yeah, that because like that, the way it unfolds in the book, obviously, is that they, you know, become friends and then go on a trip and then they make the deal. But in the movie, it doesn't make sense.
Laura Petro: They really try to rush a lot of things in the movie that I didn't like. And I'm like, I think you guys could just like just did it one more time. Just did it. Just did like one little scene.
Meggie: Yeah.
Laura Petro: And it would have made so much sense. But I digress.
Meggie: Because if I'm like, if I'm planning a trip with someone in college who was the opposite sex and it wasn't giving me anxiety, I was fully flirting. That's fully like I'm flirting.
Laura Petro: Yeah. Yeah.
Meggie: We're going to go and have a romantic getaway and it's going to be fun and it's going be wild and we might talk, we might not.
Laura Petro: now
Meggie: But that is where they decide to be friends.
Laura Petro: Neither here nor there. And where they're at right now is this horrible Airbnb in Palm Springs. I think in the book, Emily Henry does a good job of having this trip just kind of go wrong at literally every point.
Laura Petro: Because like the heat does not the heat is constantly on sorry in this apartment that they're staying in.
Meggie: I mean, and heat makes you so horny. It's crazy.
Laura Petro: And like it was supposed to be like a two two bed little thing. And now it's a studio with a single bed and like a pullout chair. and then the pool's too crowded.
Meggie: Yeah.
Laura Petro: and
Meggie: And also Poppy is trying to figure out if Alex is still, he's been in this on and off relationship with Sarah, this girl that he had a crush on from college and has been dating probably for like eight years.
Laura Petro: yeah
Meggie: And he's being like a little evasive. He won't really say. And Poppy's.
Laura Petro: But also Poppy won't really ask. This is my problem with both of them is they both never say what they're feeling or ask what the other person wants.
Meggie: Yeah.
Meggie: Yeah.
Laura Petro: But I loved reading it. And is it was like, it frustrated me to no end, but I had to know what was going to happen next.
Meggie: I think it is so relatable to be in that place where you reveal enough to someone that you like and you're also like, I think I have a crush on them, but they're also a friend.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Meggie: So it almost feels like you're like performing when you're around them a bit.
Laura Petro: Yeah, I totally get they're both too afraid to like do anything about it because they don't want to ruin the friendship. But the reality is they already ruined the friendship. And this trip, again, bad to worse, because Alex diligently agrees to sleep on the insists on sleeping on this pullout chair, fucks up his back the next day.
Meggie: Mm-hmm.
Laura Petro: So he's stuck in this hot ass apartment. And then he insists that like Poppy go out for the day. So she just is like driving around in circles trying to entertain herself.
Laura Petro: And that's also causing her to spiral even more about like, what the fuck am I doing here?
Meggie: Yeah, it's her just wondering why she's there.
Laura Petro: Relatable.
Meggie: It's so hot. He doesn't seem to be having a good time. She's having flashbacks the whole time of this, which is one of my one of my flashbacks that I like a lot more, which is the Vancouver Canada one where she meets up with Buck, who is played by Lucas Gage.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Meggie: in the movie. And actually something that they omitted was that she was a virgin in the book. So she's, kind of skittish about like hooking up. She's like, I just want to make out.
Meggie: that's it.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Meggie: And when she goes back to the tent to talk to Alex about this on their vacation, you know, like 10 summers ago, he is kind of berating Buck. He's like, I can't believe he would like pressure or make you feel bad about shit like that.
Laura Petro: yeah Yeah, exactly.
Meggie: but that's very protective of you.
Laura Petro: I think the thing, like, the movie really kind of watered down, like... like the nuance of their relationship, like how, you know, protective they get or how jealous they get, which I really missed because like, that is such like a torch of the book that is constantly an underlying tone with their interaction. So I was just like, so mad that i was like, this is just kind of like, we're two buddies and we're in love, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, you guys, the movie, you're not getting Yeah. Yeah.
Meggie: And you're sharing a tent. I don't think I could sleep well in the tent. First of all, because you're sleeping on the ground. But also like when I am sleeping next to someone that I have a crush on, especially as full grown adults, I am aware of every movement I am making and they are making next to me because it's we're sleeping in close quarters.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Meggie: What do you do in close quarters?
Laura Petro: And speaking of when Poppy gets back and like helps Alex with this back spasm, they fall asleep and then they wake up the next morning and he has like a raging boner. And of course they're not going to talk about it because of theyre they're both very aware of their feelings for each other that they're not going to admit.
Meggie: Wait, is that this one? I thought that was when he was, when she gets really sick.
Laura Petro: No, old I think it happens then too, but it happens in the Palm Springs apartment too
Meggie: Oh, this is Palm. Okay, we're back to Palm Springs.
Laura Petro: Yeah, I'm back to Palm Springs.
Meggie: yeah
Laura Petro: Sorry, I'm back back in the present timeline.
Meggie: Oh my god, I forgot about the boner. Yeah, I mean, somewhere to hang your hat, you know?
Laura Petro: I wrote that down. I was like, damn. Yeah.
Meggie: Oh, oh boy. Yeah, I remember that. Because then also, aren't there like legs entangled and she's like trying to like get out a little bit without...
Laura Petro: Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah
Meggie: Oops. Oops. so I think that this is the day that they go out actually, correct?
Laura Petro: Yes. They go out and they have a miserable time. Like Poppy's trying to like get the spark of all of their previous vacations back by having like this itinerary.
Laura Petro: But it's like everything they go and do just it's too hot. Alex has to move a little bit slower.
Meggie: Mm-hmm.
Laura Petro: Poppy's really trying to force it. And so the dynamic is just so bonkers and off that it's
Meggie: Is there like going to the zoo and she has booked a feeding time with the giraffe and and she's so excited to surprise him. And Alex is like, I think I just need to sit down for a minute. It's so hot. I am so dehydrated.
Laura Petro: It's bad. And then finally, like Alex is like, we don't, maybe we should just like go back to like the like apartment. We can just like watch a movie and just like chill. They get a flat tire and they have to go this roundabout way to get their ass home by like dropping it off at like a mechanic and then ordering an Uber.
Laura Petro: and they're both really stressed. And Poppy's not hiding the fact that she's so stressed because she's paying for all of this, obviously. then,
Meggie: Yes. And it like all comes to a head too because they start fighting about Sarah because I think that he's like still being evasive about it.
Laura Petro: and then
Meggie: And this woman full-blown moved for him. And she gets he gets like mad that she keeps pushing and being like, are you guys together? Like, why aren't you together? is it me?
Meggie: And things like that. And he's like, listen, I get that you don't want things like marriage or kids or to like grow old with someone. But I do. So just back off for a minute.
Laura Petro: And we also have to remind you that it is so hot in this like studio apartment while they're having this entire fight. And so they they go out on the balcony because it starts raining and then they immediately just like...
Meggie: Oh, yeah.
Laura Petro: Yeah. Yeah.
Meggie: They... Oh, my God. Yes. Okay. So they... They're like sharing the bed. The AC broke. They're having this huge fucking fight. Poppy's saying crazy shit. Like, honestly, i mean, first of all, she's like, I don't want you guys to have broken up because of me.
Laura Petro: Thank
Meggie: But also, I don't want you to be with her because she hates me. And then what if we can't be friends? And then they are just out on the balcony and they're fighting.
Meggie: and I don't even know. oh my gosh. Oh, she is like, says something like, I always want. He's like, I will be in your life for as long as you want. And she goes, i will always want you. And they're like cradling each other.
Meggie: And then they're about to kiss. There's a flashback to a different vacation, but they're about to kiss. And then they do in real time. And it is, i mean, they've been waiting 12 years to fuck.
Laura Petro: yeah and like so they have sex on this right balcony pouring rain they are immediately zero to 100 admit they're in love with each other he
Meggie: It's a crazy sex scene.
Meggie: Yeah, she's, oh my God, they say I love you. And then also he's like going down on her and she's like, Alex, stop teasing me. And he says, I've been waiting 12 years for this. You can relax. And that's insane.
Meggie: And she's also like, I can't believe I've been having mediocre sex for 12 years.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Laura Petro: Yeah. yeah But then like immediately after this bubble bubbles burst. The guy who owns the studio apartment's like, I'll give you a refund.
Laura Petro: The heat's actually broken. So then they like go to a hotel and it's immediately awkward again. She sleeps in like the separate bed because he falls asleep like right away. And it's like, no, Poppy, you just you guys just had sex.
Laura Petro: Why are you being weird about it? But of course she's going to weird about it.
Meggie: Oh, wait, sorry. Also, one of my favorite moments. Oh, my God, I forgot because reading this made my jaw drop. So they are about to have sex. And she goes, oh, my God, wait, fuck. I went off birth control. And he goes, oh, don't worry. I got a vasectomy.
Meggie: And she is like, why, what? And he was like, well, i just got really nervous. I don't want this to like ever be a thing. Cause his mom died during childbirth and he's really nervous about it.
Laura Petro: Yeah. Yeah.
Meggie: And the reason, oh my God, this is so crazy. The reason he got a vasectomy. So him, Sarah, i think Trey was Poppy's boyfriend and Poppy, they go on like a couple's trip.
Meggie: to Tuscany or something.
Laura Petro: yeah
Meggie: And she has a pregnancy scare. She's two days late on her period. It is false. But she's crying so much that it stresses Alex out so much that he goes and gets a vasectomy if the chance to ever fuck Poppy pops up.
Meggie: And then they they don't talk for two years. It's within the two year span that they're not talking. Like he's fully with Sarah and he goes to get a vasectomy.
Laura Petro: yeah yeah just just in case insane also i hated the way they did the pregnancy scare in the movie because it just like it didn't it didn't work because they tried to merge the tuscany trip with the croatia trip in the movie and they needed to be separate things it did i for me it didn't work at all
Meggie: Sarah who wants kids just in case.
Meggie: They did because I feel like the Croatia trip was such a big one. That was after. So like finally after Tuscany, the road is open. She is not with Trey.
Meggie: i think that's his name.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Meggie: I don't really know.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Meggie: And then he is not with Sarah. And they get this photographer drunk enough to just leave them alone because there's one from her magazine with them. And they're also pretty tipsy. And they're like going to kiss and Honestly, this is such a classic misread where they make out and he's like, I don't want this drunk. And she really panics and is like, oh, no, no, no. It was a mistake.
Meggie: yeah Like, I get it because she also doesn't want to be honest about her feelings.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Laura Petro: Yeah, and that's what causes them to not talk for two years. And in the movie, like, it doesn't, like, she goes for the kiss first, which doesn't make sense. It always, it should, it needs to be Alex's character with, like, how their dynamic is.
Meggie: Well, because he goes for the kiss first in the rain, and then she reciprocates.
Laura Petro: Yeah. Yeah, but in the movie in the movie, in the flashback, it's like Poppy goes for this trip kiss. And it's also after the pregnancy scare. So it kind of, again, it muddies the whole dynamic of these two so very separate moments for me.
Laura Petro: But I digress.
Meggie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So they've just had sex. I mean, they're flying high, I would say. And it's time for David, his brother's wedding.
Meggie: They go and i i think that Alex introduces her to.
Laura Petro: They're fully together at the wedding. They're like, like he's like again introduced, they're holding hands.
Meggie: They're fully together.
Laura Petro: Everyone's like, I'm so glad you guys finally got together. Like it's canon all of sudden.
Meggie: my favorite part in the book i don't know if it's like his uncle but someone comes up to poppy and is like you can call me ed and poppy responds with what the hell you can call me ed too i thought it was his dad too but i was like there's no way that she knows thought
Laura Petro: I think it was his dad.
Laura Petro: No, it's his dad. Cause Alex and his dad had like a weird relationship. But then it's like, that Ed's like, what?
Meggie: that was so funny
Laura Petro: I thought that was hilarious. I laughed out loud at that. The like kind of like bliss bubble thereks like there. They're having like a little like now couples trip. Like they're going to wedding stuff. They're having sex after.
Laura Petro: They're hanging out.
Meggie: Yeah. And also, I feel like David and Poppy have a really important conversation at this point, too, because he is like, you know, Alex was like kind of the older father to all of us.
Meggie: Like he's the eldest son.
Laura Petro: Yeah. Yeah.
Meggie: My dad is really sad after mom died. He raised us. And now he's kind of stuck in Ohio taking care of grandma's house because dad doesn't want to.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Meggie: And he's an empty nester. So I would be like, oh, perfect. He wants a reason to leave Ohio. Yeah. Come New York with Mm-hmm.
Laura Petro: Yeah. But Poppy also gets some tea that like he bought an engagement ring for Sarah, but never actually proposed just because it was always like he was still like hung up on Poppy and wasn't going to do that to her. So Poppy's like, oh, so like this has been like real, real for him for a while. And like we just haven't been doing anything about it.
Laura Petro: And then I'll flash forward. They go to the airport together on like the last day of this little trip. And Poppy finally admits that she paid for the entire trip.
Laura Petro: And this is a huge just miscommunication on their end. And they both just jump to conclusions because she's like, I don't know, I just kind of wanted to like get things back to they were and just like not like deal with real life.
Laura Petro: And he's like, oh, so this isn't real life. And she's like, no, no.
Meggie: Yeah, he was like, I've been thinking about this. Like, I've thought this out. And I want stability. I think I want that more than you do. You just kind of want to go on this trip because you feel purposeless in life.
Meggie: And I can't – if I'm not what you want, then, like, we can't do this.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Meggie: Like –
Laura Petro: No. Yeah, so he's just like, don't talk to me for a while, which, like, good for him for standing on business.
Meggie: standing on business yeah for sure
Laura Petro: But this also sends Poppy into kind of, like, a whole, like, spiral. She, like... Runs into her high school bully. Realizes it's not important anymore. Like the thing that she was holding on She goes to therapy.
Laura Petro: And she's like okay.
Meggie: huge she does uh so she flies back on home well actually first of all she quits her job
Laura Petro: I know what I have to do now.
Laura Petro: Oh yeah. she She literally like goes full 180. Like you're right. I gotta quit my job. And I gotta move the fuck on with my life. She quits her job and flies to Ohio. And she's like i don't know what I'm doing. But I'm here right now.
Meggie: Yep, she is there. She goes to a school. He is not there. Runs into fucking Sarah, of all people.
Laura Petro: Yikes.
Meggie: And Sarah is basically like, yeah, it was obvious to everyone but you guys that you wanted it to be a thing, which really fucking sucks for Sarah.
Laura Petro: Yeah, but Sarah also admits like, i probably should have admitted it to myself a little bit earlier because she also, I think, was hoping to kind of pick up the pieces of something that would fall apart, but it never did.
Meggie: i don't think that this is canon, but I saw someone say that funny story is Sarah's love story. So you should read funny story next because it checks out a lot for me.
Laura Petro: I would absolutely do that.
Meggie: So Sarah also tells Poppy where he's at, which is the bar across the street. So she goes to the bar across the street. She is gearing up to talk to him and gives just this beautiful...
Meggie: soliloquy about, you know, when I grew up in Linfield, I felt lonely. I thought traveling would make me less lonely because lonely because I'd meet all of the people in the world. And it's just one person that makes me less lonely.
Meggie: And you are home to me. You are that rock. I love New York, but I would be willing to crazy move back to Ohio for you.
Laura Petro: crazy as someone from ohio crazy
Meggie: And
Meggie: he says, i don't think we make sense. Which is fair. i don't think you guys do it either.
Laura Petro: which is fair but also like man gut punch so poppy like politely nods and like as cool as she possibly can exits the bar and immediately like sobs as she like runs to her car in the parking lot And of course, Alex, he intercepts her and is like, wait, wait, wait, no. Okay, wait. Like, I also need to tell you things. I'm also being fearful of this.
Laura Petro: And then he has his own little soliloquy moment. He says he's afraid to be happy and she's also his home. And then we get this like really sweet epilogue of them just kind of li like they're together and trying to figure out where they want to live. And it doesn't really matter because they get to be together. Yeah.
Meggie: Yeah, she is running her own blog. He is teaching at some school in New York. And then they spend summers in Linfield because I guess he still has his his grandma's house.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Meggie: I mean, that's that's awesome. But how would your job? I guess if he's teaching, that makes sense.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Meggie: She must be really successful. Yeah.
Laura Petro: yeah i mean, or I guess if you have a house, it's like a pay less rent or something. I don't know.
Meggie: Oh yeah, maybe sublease for like the three months and just charge up the ass.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Meggie: Maybe they're, you know, home home flippers or or landlords.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Laura Petro: Yeah, we don't know. But that was that was it. I thought this book was really cute overall. I didn't like the part where she was like, I would give up everything for you. And I'm like, that's a weird stance to have in a relationship of like, actually, nothing else matters besides. you
Meggie: Oh my god, the worst place to be moving out of a city a suburb.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Meggie: Can you imagine?
Laura Petro: Yeesh. But i i still really liked it.
Meggie: Horrible.
Laura Petro: And I was like, OK, OK.
Meggie: Yeah, I had a really good time. i need to read more of her books because I've heard a lot of people don't like this one and I finished this in a day.
Laura Petro: Same. Desperate.
Meggie: So what does that mean the other ones are like?
Laura Petro: Yeah. If, okay, if, wait, if this one's the least favorite, that's shocking. Cause I read this in like, yeah, like two and a half days. I,
Meggie: Yeah, dude, I think it's the least favorite. Isn't that crazy?
Laura Petro: well, now I have to, now I, now i have to, we have to do our own research and read some more.
Meggie: Yes, I am truly thrilled. Well, I think that the universe is coming. in It's just barreling down.
Laura Petro: Oh, I mean, yeah, I think people we need on vacation did well enough for I'm sure her to get another but book to movie deal.
Meggie: i know Book Lovers is going to. i think Funny Story has been optioned as well.
Laura Petro: Yeah.
Meggie: I don't know. Beach Read might also be on there, but I'm not entirely sure.
Laura Petro: Hey, it's only a matter of time. It's Emily Henry's world and we're all just living in it.
Meggie: And I would say Laura and I's biggest critique of the movie is you have been waiting 12 years to fuck and you're going to have the most PG-13 sex scene in the movie.
Meggie: I'm not even just listen, as we know, i I'm always talking about how horny I am on the podcast, but just from a storytelling point of view, that is like such a huge moment in the book.
Laura Petro: I... Yeah. the the movie The movie, I think, really missed like some very like pivotal themes and vibes from the book that make it make sense. I think I would have liked the movie had i like more had I not read the book first, but because I had, I was just like, this just kind of feels like a safe...
Laura Petro: safe spark note version of like the, the book, you know, they're like, again, it doesn't get the nuance.
Meggie: Yeah.
Laura Petro: It kind of scratches the surface of their complex relationship, but it doesn't really get into it. yeah.
Meggie: Yeah, I think they streamline things in ways that make sense in the beginning. I don't think we need all of the back and forth. And I think that her just being invited to the wedding, it's like, okay, that makes a lot more sense than like trying to explain how she gets to, I guess, like the vacation of it all.
Laura Petro: Yeah. Yeah.
Meggie: But the rest, there's so much nuance. And also, I feel like they made Alex like pseudo cruel when he
Laura Petro: Yeah. No, like, I don't think, like, in the movie, Making Alex actually proposed to Sarah. I think negates his entire character.
Meggie: I know.
Laura Petro: And I was like, this actually is really, like, you don't get it. Whoever wrote the screenplay, like, you're just trying to go for drama now. And I'm like, but that's not what this story is, you know?
Meggie: Like, I think he was always hopeful but never flippant about people's feelings.
Laura Petro: No. And like, that's the thing. It's like, I really liked like a lot of what they did with Alex's character to kind of make him, he's this awkward, you know, silly guy. But then at times, like later on, he got too like mean and resentful and like cold, which is like, that's never what he was. Yeah.
Meggie: Yeah, that is true. Like they have that scene where they both are independently talking to their partners about the other couple. And she's the only one that's like, let's not dog on Sarah and Alex.
Meggie: And Alex and Sarah are kind of like kinking about how funny it is that they are always running from their problems.
Laura Petro: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So again, and again, I feel like like this book really reads like a movie.
Meggie: I just don't think he would be like that.
Laura Petro: It's all there. And I really could have just like copy and pasted and like rearrange some things. But they tried to do, I think, too much rearranging to be like, it's a movie. It's fresh. It's going to go for the masses.
Laura Petro: And I was just like, you guys, you guys had it. You guys had it and you lost it
Meggie: Yeah, I agree. i think there's like some vacations they could have caught and then they I think their day together even they could have caught if they needed to like cut things.
Laura Petro: Well, yeah. And the fact that like they they kind of like the whole plot of the book is that she rearranged a fake vacation to kind of reestablish the relationship.
Laura Petro: And that's not even a thing in the movie. Like you cut the main plot driving their relationship to get back together. Yeah.
Meggie: Yeah. I mean, also, listen, I just can't get over it. When I read the vasectomy part, my jaw dropped. That...
Laura Petro: I keep that line in. That was actually like, if you're going to keep one thing in keep the vasectomy line in.
Meggie: How would... Okay, when I read that, I think it kind of fully took me out of the book because I was like, I think that's insane.
Laura Petro: Yeah. Oh, I thought that was insane too.
Meggie: think there's so...
Laura Petro: i literally was just like, well, okay, sure. Let's see where this goes.
Meggie: I think that if someone did that for me, if I was pining for them after 12 years, I mean, also, I have a very fucked avoidant relationship. I think it would change my view of them entirely.
Laura Petro: I, to be fair, like if somebody said, hey Laura, I got a vasectomy for the off chance that we ever did have sex like a few years ago, I'd be like, that's actually the serial killer shit.
Laura Petro: And I don't want to do this anymore.
Meggie: Well, I'd feel so much pressure because I'm like, you got this for me because you thought I don't want to have kids. So that means that you think that like we're endgame. And like, i I guess I entertained it, but now I'm actually I'm presented with the fact that this is what it is. And now I feel locked into just marriage and we're just fucking for the first time.
Laura Petro: Yeah, no, it it's again, it's too much pressure to be like, again, you made a life to like again, a a change to your body on the off chance of whatever. It's weird.
Meggie: It's weird for him to get a vasectomy, but I could get a fatter ass for a hot girlfriend.
Laura Petro: I could go on.
Meggie: I think that that makes sense. Like, I think that if I think if I could a PBL for a hot girl, I think that that would actually be so normal.
Laura Petro: You're going to get BBL for a hot girlfriend?
Laura Petro: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Meggie, you're gonna be like, I got this BBL for you like six years ago in case we ever
Meggie: Yeah, you just got to prepare for the love of your life.
Laura Petro: And they say chivalry is dead. Not not when not when Meg's doing long drawn out maybe friends to lover scenarios.
Meggie: Exactly. Yeah, don't know what else to talk about.
Laura Petro: can wrap it up we're we're goofing we're gabbing i think i think i've spoken my piece at least i could probably talk about the vasectomy in circles for an hour but i don't need to do that
Meggie: Yeah, that's true.
Meggie: That is fair. And if you want to get more of us. Oh, actually, I think I updated Zencaster. So I think that this is going to upload videos of us talking now to YouTube.
Meggie: And also, I think just automatically cut the things together. so I'm kind of excited to see what happens when we post tomorrow.
Laura Petro: cool Yeah. It's on our Zencaster journey. We're not sponsored by them. We actually pay them money.
Meggie: yes why not wouldn i we It's $288 a year. So if you want to support us and maybe even give us like $16 cash app, I'm Maggie Gates on cash app.
Laura Petro: Yeah. I don't know.
Meggie: That's not what we're promoting.
Laura Petro: We just...
Meggie: We're promoting Maggie and Laura on YouTube. I'm trying to post on shorts now because TikTok's evil.
Laura Petro: we're not yet We're not on TikTok anymore. That's been a development. So now we're like figuring out how do we promote the podcast. I guess it's just YouTube and Instagram now.
Meggie: It's, yeah, it's, yeah, it really is. It's crazy.
Laura Petro: We're working on it. Thanks for being here. We love you.
