Bad Summer People: A Novel by Emma Rosenblum

Author:Emma Rosenblum [Rosenblum, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Thrillers, Domestic, Women, Family Life, Marriage & Divorce
ISBN: 9781250887009
Google: gmGBEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1250887003
Goodreads: 61963267
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Published: 2023-05-23T07:00:00+00:00

He kept the app open to see if she was typing. No response.

Jason Parker: Jen, I love you.

Nothing.

16

Lisa Metzner

Lisa Metzner’s life had been changed by mushrooms. Every three days, she swallowed a thumbnail-size amount of gray powder, just the right dosage of crushed psychedelics to make her feel alive. She’d discovered microdosing last year, through a mom friend from Horace Mann, a granola-loving woman in the model of Gwyneth Paltrow. She’d sworn that microdosing would cure Lisa of her headaches and her minor depression and had passed along her dealer’s info. Lisa, curious, in need of a jolt, tried it immediately. She’d never looked back.

Mushrooms made her feel alert. Happy. She could focus on her life coach coursework in a way she’d never imagined possible. She loved Brian more. She enjoyed being a mom.

She was particularly grateful to be tripping when Brian had told her, a month ago, that his fund had gone to shit. They’d made some bad bet, and now Brian was paying for it, to the point that Lisa was worried they’d have to sell their place in Salcombe. It hadn’t come to that yet, but Brian, between his blustering lies to everyone else, was in total panic mode. Lisa was trying to keep it together, to stay upbeat for Maryloo and Myrna, but it had been tough. The mushrooms were getting her through.

So, when she’d seen Sam Weinstein jump into the bay, for a moment she’d thought she’d mistakenly taken too much. Was she hallucinating? But no, Sam was really in the water. Doing a back float while the rest of the village watched in surprise. Jason had gone in after him, their two heads bobbing up and down as the sun set. Maybe she and Brian weren’t the only ones with things to hide.

Lisa was generally an open person. She’d risen in the celebrity PR world in her twenties and thirties, representing spoiled, demanding movie and TV stars. She was adept at handling difficult personalities, stroking people’s egos, and allowing them to think they were in charge.

Brian liked that Lisa was fine with him being the center of attention, so long as she was steering the ship. She treated him like a client; hyping him up, turning the other way when he made a fool of himself, and ultimately making peace with the idea that he was providing her income.

She’d stopped working when the girls were small, but when Myrna went to school full-time, Lisa needed something else. It was too late to get back into the PR game, an industry for which the off-ramp was final. She’d heard of a friend of a friend becoming a life coach and, after some wine-drunk online research, had signed up for a course.

“Life coaches are the new real estate agents,” she’d heard someone scoff at a cocktail party soon after. Lisa didn’t care about the bored-housewife connotations. She liked talking to people and having something to focus on other than the kids and the gym.

Coming into the summer, Lisa had felt better than ever.

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