Cleat Cute | Ch. 20 - 25

We reunited in Chicago to celebrate Casinobachi for Tiff's birthday!  If this weekend taught us anything, it’s that gambling might be more our speed than smut. While the back half of Cleat Cute didn’t fully land for us, it did dive into deeper themes around ADHD, family dynamics, coming out, and finally letting go of the life you think you’re supposed to live. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Thanks for calling Plotline Hotline. This call may be monitored and recorded for quality assurance purposes. If you're calling because you read it Cleep Cute, please stay on the line. I'm executive producer Paige Turner, and joining us are your hosts, Claire, Tiff, and Courtney. Please hold while we connect you to the hosts. And again, welcome to Plotline Hotline.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Wow. That was our best clap ever, and why is that?

SPEAKER_04 0:35

Uh because we're in sync person.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Yeah, there's no there's no delay from the internet.

SPEAKER_04 0:45

Oh we're coming to you live after a full of a weekend. It's some crazy shit. Who wants to go first?

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Claire, go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 0:57

Claire, I want to set the scene. Hold on. Claire is laying down on my couch.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Full horizontal.

SPEAKER_04 1:03

Uh she just woke up about five minutes ago because we saved recording the podcast until the day they had to leave.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

I wouldn't be up for anything else. I'm here for you two.

SPEAKER_04 1:13

Alright. Well, anyways, tossing it over to Claire.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

You know, last night made me a little bit nervous because I said I'd take money out of that ATM faster than I could control. So I'm down to my last hundred. Blew 400 on the slots. Never been here before. You know, typically I have such great restraint. Hit the craps tables with the fellas. They set us up. Perfect spot.

unknown 1:34

Perfect.

SPEAKER_04 1:37

Perfect spot.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

The dealers from the night before who we were vibing with. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 1:41

Good crew. Good crew. They're back. Shout out to the crew at Bally's. Shout out to the crew at the the uh craps table in the southeast corner of the second floor of the Bally's.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

I'd like to thank my girl Eva. My girl Rose. Rose. My boy Ben.

SPEAKER_04 1:55

Ben rocked. Ben kind of rocked.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Ben kind of rocked. Jose was great. Rich, nice guy. We do know all names.

SPEAKER_06 2:07

Courtney.

SPEAKER_03 2:08

I don't mean to spoil it, but Courtney was rolling so long. That's why I know all their names. That Rich was able to leave the table and come back, and you were still rolling. And he goes, That's my girl. That's my girl.

SPEAKER_04 2:20

That's so funny. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

So they they picked out the perfect spot. Table doesn't know how to read us, but it's okay, we don't know how to read them. And slowly we're just ticking up, ticking up, ticking up, ticking up, ticking up, ticking up, ticking up. And the guy in front of me kills it to the point where I don't know how we're gonna do, right? Like it's a hard act to follow.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

He rolled for so long that it at one 1 a.m. I said to the I said to the to the fellas, I said, at 1 30 a.m. if this man is still rolling, we need a cutoff time. Yeah. To walk away.

SPEAKER_03 2:52

And that's really after what, like an hour of him arguing.

SPEAKER_04 2:54

That was a no it was it was like he had been rolling for like an hour and a half at that point.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Because I said there is certainly no way this man will still be rolling at 1.30, but if he is, we need to make a plan.

SPEAKER_04 3:03

And I want to be I want to be clear, rolling dice.

unknown 3:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:07

Great point. I do think people say throwing. Oh, whoops.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

Anyways. I also like, hey, you had the foresight that we need to make a plan. Because I was like, we can't even think about getting off the table. That's some bad GPS.

SPEAKER_04 3:21

Well, and what ended up happening is he ended up winning the make 'em all, which is crazy. Like the odds are 175 to 1, and he made that table so much money. They had to check the cameras before they could cash anyone out. They tried to give me another man's winnings.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

Yeah, it's 1700 bucks.

SPEAKER_04 3:38

Yeah, and I was like, absolutely not. I'm not touching that. That was crazy.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

That was crazy.

SPEAKER_04 3:44

Well, yeah, and oh my god. Anyways.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

So he sets the scene. I mean, it's a tough act to follow, right? But Claire's right after him.

SPEAKER_04 3:52

You know who can follow him? Claire Beanie. If if there's one person that can follow that. I was gonna say the fellas. But Claire Bean. Oh, the fellas. Sorry, the fellas. We were the only fellows at that table, if I to be clear.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

We were, and so I come up, I hit the all small, which oof, 175 to one odds. Let's fucking go. No, that's 35 to 1 to 1. Oh, yeah, yeah. Sorry, blurry. Still excellent. Still excellent. I needed that correction. Um so you know, I I do a couple good things. I'm happy, table's happy. I get tipped by another person.

SPEAKER_04 4:25

That's so fun. When you win, when you win kind of big for the table, some people will throw you some, throw you some catches the thrower.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

Tipping the shooter. Tipping the shooter. Shooter. And so um, yeah, I'm happy with my role. I'm up, I'm feeling good. You know, I started, I was down four or no, five hundred. Now I'm probably at I'm probably breaking even right now. Yes. That's probably where I'm at.

SPEAKER_04 4:47

I think we all were like, okay, like we're doing good. Like we're breaking even, like, we're feeling good about this. Let's just get through us throwing and then like we'll we'll kind of head out.

SPEAKER_02 4:56

And what time did I start throwing? You started throwing at about two, because it took so he did this man did get off the table, or he did he stopped throwing at like truly right almost on the dot at 1 30. So I apologize to that man for manifesting his his downfall.

SPEAKER_04 5:11

Yeah, because we because we were like we were like, we're gonna if he's still throwing at two, we're gonna leave. And then he like two throws later hit a seven and we're like, okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

And then it took them so long to pay everybody out that you didn't start, you started rolling Claire at about two thirds. So excuse me, two on the dot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

And um also this man's woman was calling him while he was on the table trying to get a ride to come to him, and we're all just like, he's rolling. But we weren't like, yeah, he's rolling. That's gonna come back.

SPEAKER_04 5:41

That does come back later, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Okay. So then comes back later, which is crazy. So just remember, his woman's calling him multiple times, he's still rolling. Alright, so then passing it to Tiff, you know, I crap out or whatever. So Tiff.

SPEAKER_04 5:56

Yeah, I start rolling, and I just do I think I just do okay. Like, I don't think I did anything crazy. I hit, I really like to bet on the heart eights. I hit the hard eight a couple of times, I think, which was nice, which was good for me. And then uh, yeah, I mean, I had a good throw. I think you and I probably threw for about a you probably threw for a little longer than me. Yeah. You probably went for a half hour, I probably went for like 15 minutes.

SPEAKER_03 6:21

But you didn't disappoint. Nobody was disappointed.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

15 minutes is still you're making people money. We were making people money.

SPEAKER_03 6:27

We yeah. And I I don't think they knew how to read us. Did you guys think that they were?

SPEAKER_04 6:32

At that point, I think it was a lot of regulars because they were regulars. That guy sucks. That guy they did not know who we were or what we were doing there. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 6:41

But we were following an act.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

But at one point, a guy came up and stood next to me and said, I saw you ladies throwing on the other table, and that other table had shit vibes, except for you three. So that's why I came over here. Because you three have good vibes, and I see you're over here now, and you got the dice. That man was crazy. That man was crazy. Another tidbit about this man, he was wearing a wedding ring when he joined the table, and by night's end, that wedding ring had slipped off.

SPEAKER_04 7:07

And he took the spot of another man who came over and knew that I was the birthday girl from the Oh yeah, that guy was so nice.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

We had good table partners. That guy was so that first guy was so nice.

SPEAKER_04 7:17

And then there was the guy from Tennessee from the night before, too, that remembered us. He gave me a high five, too. God, we are not allowed back there. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 7:25

We became family lusts.

SPEAKER_04 7:26

Anyway, so we're we throw. It was it was good. Yeah. Then the dice go to our boy Courtney.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

That was some that was some raw beginner's luck.

SPEAKER_04 7:36

Which is great. That's like that's I'll take it.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

We need more. We need more than just that clevation.

SPEAKER_04 7:41

We tried playing craps like two other times at that other table. Yeah, and we were we lost, I lost like 300 bucks on that other table. Well, I did.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

I was I was still big time in learning mode on the first table. I cheered. I cheered when Tiffrolled said that she cheered when I cried.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

Didn't the dealer laugh?

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Like somebody saw. Yeah, I I was really embarrassed.

SPEAKER_04 8:02

It's fine. It's you know what?

SPEAKER_02 8:04

You only make that mistake once. She let out a big woo.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

And then it had to rotate around and hang up.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

I turned around and I said, Who said that?

SPEAKER_04 8:16

Oh my god. Um yeah, then our boy Courtney just kind of rolled for another hour. She was sending them. That's crazy. Yeah. You hit the all small again. Or you hit the tall. She hit the all small. All small. Oh no, it was it was all tall.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

It was all tall because I didn't get a pay.

SPEAKER_04 8:33

Because you paid, you only put money on the all small.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:36

Um, and then yeah, you just made us a lot of money.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

And I made my and I made myself a lot of money. I looked down at one point, I had like $900 in ships.

SPEAKER_04 8:45

I was like, what the f I I think I went down about $400 last night, and I'm gonna be clear to everyone, I walked out of that casino with $1,800 in my pocket.

SPEAKER_02 8:53

Yes. And the the other crazy thing is when the man in front of Claire was rolling, I got down to about $75 because I I literally and it was a it was a $25 minimum buy-in. And I said, ooh, I need to maybe like sit out around, I need to make sure I have enough chips for when Claire rolls. I'd rather like I'd rather bet when Claire's rolling than when the stranger is rolling.

SPEAKER_04 9:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

And so to go from like being um a little nervous about my chip count to looking down and seeing $900 in chips, what a what a feeling. What a feeling how quick those tables. More people should gamble.

SPEAKER_04 9:26

Uh, and so this is an ad for casinos.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

If we just casino once, brought to you by ballets, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:32

I'm gonna redact that. They gotta pay us for it.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

I just wanted to touch base again with Courtney because Courtney, I think you're understanding your performance. Her performance last night was a 10 out of 10 as a shooter. She claimed that table for what almost an hour. I had dice for a long time. And all the guys around the table, I think, were really nice. They were being nice. We were getting high fives. I mean, you so you walked away, you had a hundred on the craps table, and you walked away with what how much? 1,800. I put 100 on, I walked away with 1300. I put a hundred on and I walked away with the five.

SPEAKER_04 10:05

Yeah, we bought we bought into that table with a hundred.

SPEAKER_03 10:08

Yeah, we bought into that table with a hundred, I walked away with eight fifty. That table lost so much money last night.

SPEAKER_04 10:12

I mean, they paid out tens of thousands of dollars on that one that make them all. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:18

I bet they lost like 50k on that table.

SPEAKER_04 10:20

Oh, yeah. Well, because like the guy that got the money that they tried to give to me, that was like the smallest payout. Yeah. So people were making big big bones on that. That was wild. Oh my god, that was so fun. Craps is very funny. Oh, and then as we were leaving the casino at, I don't know, 4 15 a.m.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Yeah, it was about 4 a.m. we were waiting for the cab because I stopped wrong. The three of us had the dice for a full 90, I think. If not more.

SPEAKER_04 10:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

Because we were outside the casino like at 3 45, 4 a.m.

SPEAKER_04 10:50

Yeah, and uh our buddy from earlier, whose girlfriend was calling him, walked past us on the street and was like, with his girlfriend. And she was like, was he really throwing the dice? We're like, he was really throwing the dice for that long.

SPEAKER_02 11:05

He made that table a lot.

SPEAKER_03 11:07

He's like, he made us all a lot of money tonight. That man's back hurt. Yeah, from holding us over. Then he goes, see, I need a back wrap.

SPEAKER_04 11:14

And I was like, that's my guy. Yes, you do. And then also one of the casino workers was like, walked past us as we were waiting for the car and was like, I'm so glad you guys played with us tonight. I was like, oh my god. Yeah, I'll come back again.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

There was a very nice, nice crew.

SPEAKER_04 11:34

I will say, it was like the first women we've seen. So that was really fun. Yeah, it was cool.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Oh my god. They got it and they got it. Rose with the meme on her, on her meme on her bad. And she kind of looked like the meme when she made certain faces, and I think that's why that was there. That was so funny. That was pretty funny.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

And you know, we really like going to the casino, we just had to do it. Like it was destiny lining us up. It was.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

It was if destiny is if if by destiny, Claire, you mean Tiff booking an escape room, a stone, a literal stone's throw from the casino. I don't know how that happened. Yeah, and then going, well, we're here again.

SPEAKER_04 12:12

I was like, guys, I have a hundred dollars in my pocket. Maybe we just go see.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Because we had gone to the casino the night before. I don't know if we've said that yet. We went to the casino on Friday night as well. Casino bocci. Casino bocce. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:22

Um do you want to sit in that chair?

SPEAKER_02 12:23

We got a special guest on the phone too.

SPEAKER_04 12:26

Hey Claire, can you throw her one of the that cushion?

SPEAKER_05 12:29

Well, I might, I might, I feel like I missed half a story.

SPEAKER_04 12:31

Oh, you missed the whole casino story. Oh, okay. Yeah. But uh Paige Turner's here, so in the flesh. She's uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Yeah, I've never seen her in person before. She's usually just on the on the screen. She's usually just on the screen. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

I just wanted to space before the casino because I think that was one of the weirdest experiences I've ever had. Oh yeah. What a night we had. It was a weird weird night in chocolate on the casino floor.

SPEAKER_04 12:57

Those two, it was that woman's 71st birthday. Oh yeah. And then the the world's first I so this other woman came up and had like the craziest tongue piercings and was like gyrating and wiggling her tongue. And I looked at Courtney and I've said, that's the first stud there ever was. The very first the OG stud. Ah that's the ground floor stud. You could just turn that off. Um, that was crazy. But we did an escape room before the casino, and uh we were locked in that room in that room with maybe the craziest woman I've ever met. The craziest. She she forcibly removed Claire's hands from a puzzle that Claire was doing.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

That was after after showing up 15 minutes late.

SPEAKER_03 13:40

Hitting the TV going, I want a clue. You might ask, well, Claire, were you being aggressive with the puzzle? I was holding a piece up in thin air because it was a vertical puzzle. My hand was just to hold it in there and it got batted away. So you be the judge.

SPEAKER_04 13:56

Also, at one point, the puzzle had pegs on it, right? The puzzle had pegs sticking out of it. So there's a clear, there it's so clear which part of the puzzle faces out because there you're putting it on glass. You cannot put it peg side down, it will not sit. They tried that twice.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

They did. They they were so bad at the puzzle, I got church laughs. I had to walk away. I was holding the flashlight, and me and Courtney were like, Tiv and I kept making eye contact, and the third time we did, I was like, I gotta get out of here.

SPEAKER_04 14:29

I'm gonna start laughing at these people that in their face on accident. And the best part is she was like, Oh, this is what I'm good at.

SPEAKER_03 14:35

No, nothing like a qualifier. It was uh, because it was the weirdest. I think they were on a date. I don't know, but it was he was beefing her up. He was like, This is why we needed you. We needed you for this puzzle. Oh my god. He was just trying to relate.

SPEAKER_04 14:49

Then there was one point where we got a code to unlock. There was like this three-part puzzle that had a keypad, and you had to find the code for each three things. We unlocked one of the things with the code, you saw it happen, and then they tried to input it in the other keypad, and they're like, It's not working. And we're like, You already unlocked it, and it already worked. Puzzle master had to put it on the TV and be like, You already did that.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

They're not giving us one code for all seven access points we need.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

It was crazy. She was like, She was crazy. I didn't put in the words. Did you see at the end we and Cory talked about this where the puzzle master was like trying to take our picture and she tried to hit give her a handshake?

SPEAKER_03 15:27

It was the most awkward thing I've ever seen in my life. Oh god. Just like imagine that you're just like chilling and this like intensity, like with the feeling of a freight chain, just enters the room that you're locked into. She, I don't think she had any social awareness to like manipulate.

SPEAKER_04 15:47

Claire thinks she had autism.

SPEAKER_03 15:49

I thought she was on drugs. No, Claire, I think you might not have been wrong. Yeah. It was just wild. You definitely could have been honest. I'm just glad that I was on whatever drink Amy gave me before I walked in. Claire sounds silly.

SPEAKER_04 16:04

Lucky you, I sobered up real quick in there.

SPEAKER_03 16:06

I'm so proud of you. There were times where I was like, oh, Tiff's gonna blow it. Like she's gonna, she's gonna she's gonna do her tip thing and walk away.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

No, I saw her do that. I saw her do that tip thing. The woman came over and was being bossy with Tiff about a pu about a piece of something, and Tiff just kind of pretty harshly set it on the ground and said, Okay, and walked away. And then I was stuck there with this woman. I felt so awkward. I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_04 16:30

Oh, anytime we had to do something that required teamwork, there was no there was no teamwork to be had. They were making it so much more confusing.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

We would have and we did escape with two minutes left, we would have escaped with about 30 if those people weren't in our way. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 16:44

It's so funny too, because before we went in, Claire asked the person at the front desk if there were any leaks. And then we came out with two minutes left. But I strongly agree that we would have the record was like seven minutes. I think we would have beaten that. For sure.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

Oh, yeah, it was seven minutes like that. Like we were cranking, we would have cranked through that.

SPEAKER_04 17:04

But we had to bring them up to speed, show them where their clue button was.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

We'd continue to kick them out of the way. They would check something so poorly that we would have to go back and check their work.

SPEAKER_04 17:13

Yeah, it was like it was and it was like instructions would come on, we'd get a hint on the TV. Oh my god. We would read it and start actively attacking the problem that was clearly we were directed towards. Like three minutes later, she would scream what was on the TV.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

And she would read we're seven piece steps past that.

SPEAKER_03 17:35

Oh boy. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

What our night was bookended.

SPEAKER_03 17:39

That is why we had women to go to the casino because those vibes were wild.

SPEAKER_04 17:44

I do feel like we just had like a mini boys' weekend. Uh-huh. Boys' weekend lights. Yeah. Which speaking of. Oh. Should we make the decision? Ten out of ten on transition. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I learned from the best. Yeah. Um. Yeah, let's do it. Okay, so the short list was Bozeman, Montana.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

Which, if I think this is crazy. Claire and I made our own Claire and I on the drive up here made our own. We each took three guesses of where we thought Tiff was gonna pick. Our only clue is that it's west of Chicago. And so Claire and I came up with a six, uh six city list, and there was one, there was one overlapping city, and it was Bozeman, Montana. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 18:26

So that might that might that might be fate. Yeah. So Bozeman, Montana, uh, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming. But also, all of a sudden, I'm kind of into the thought of Big Sky.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Yeah, Big Sky's only 45 minutes from Bozeman, so we could have gotten it.

SPEAKER_04 18:42

Yeah, so now I'm feeling like we might just pull the trigger and call it a Bozeman, Montana Boys Weekend. Cowboys Weekend. Cowboys weekend. And then we can kind of see if we want to get to Big Sky for like skiing or something one day. Yeah. Okay. Boys Weekend 2026. Bozeman, Montana. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Yeah. Alright, everybody, mark your calendars. It's the first weekend of the first weekend of November. Is that right? Yeah, November 5th through 8th or something.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Oh, so we're gonna be uh I think that's when the time changes, isn't it? We're gonna get a bonus, a bonus hour. We get a bon Oh wait. No, we're no, yeah, we get a bonus hour of Boys Weekend. Bo bonus bonus.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

Montana has our back. What? The universe has our back.

SPEAKER_04 19:27

The universe has our back. So that means we can be in a couple of years. I'm so sorry. I lied.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

I lied. Daylight savings is early this year. It's on November 1st.

unknown 19:34

Fuck.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Well, this is a good idea. We only get 24 hours in the casino. Imagine being in the casino when the time changes.

SPEAKER_03 19:43

I feel like Montana's got some like casinos. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Don't worry.

SPEAKER_04 19:52

Crapping around. Oh, okay. Well, that feels like all of our housekeeping agenda. I would like to. This should have been said before we started this, because now it's going to be buried in the episode. We have a big apology to make.

SPEAKER_03 20:08

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 20:09

I forgot. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Um, we'd like to correct that the author of Cleat Cute uses they them pronouns. And we did, we were not aware of that, and we should have done our research, and we would like to apologize deeply. Um dare you not make us aware. Yeah, that's that's on me. I should have done my research. Uh but we will be using they them for now on. Um big apologies there. But um yeah. I can't remember really where we left off. Oh, they were about to have, they were about to we had a cliffhanger of sex on the line when we when we left off. I will say, the back half of this book, not as much, not as much sex as the first half.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

Correct. Like most lesbian relationships. Whoa. Life imitates art.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Art imitates life.

SPEAKER_04 20:59

That's the whole that's the whole question. Oh, I do have one question, which is that Courtney texted us and said, kind of surprise with how the book ended, and I was like, I feel like it was pretty predictable the whole way through.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

No, because I thought, and you know what I don't know what this is about me, but I I can't remember why I said that. But I think that it's because I thought the second half was gonna be like they break up and then they get back together, and like that was gonna be the end. But there was a twist that I liked. There was like something. What was the twist? Yeah, I think twist is really uh over. What the hell was the twist? Not a twist, but there was can somebody explain the plot of the second half?

SPEAKER_04 21:45

Yeah, so they have sex and then um essentially uh Grace, the superstar. Yeah, she like Well, she's very hurt, yeah, yeah. She likes uh finds out that well no no no that happened before did she find out in the first half that Phoebe told I don't know, but either way, it wasn't that big of a deal. It wasn't that big of a deal. But um, anyways, uh she realizes she doesn't want to be captain anymore and have all these responsibilities and all this stuff. Um, and then uh because she sees that her teammate stands up to the coach or whatever, um something. I don't know. About Phoebe. Yeah, it's about Phoebe because she gets a red card and like her first home opener or whatever, um, because she's mad at the girl that Grace kind of didn't really hook up with. I don't even really know about that story. But, anyways, um, yeah, it's just it's like a lot of the same. Like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

I think I think there were some cool themes. I I personally don't think it was anything to write home to mom about, but maybe we'll try with you. So she calls her dad, and like in her head, soccer's her identity, and on this call with her dad, her dad basically gives her permission. He's like, I love like I would hang out with you whatever you're passionate about. I go to your soccer games because you're passionate about soccer, but if you wanted to quit soccer, if you don't want to be a captain, like it's your life, follow your dreams. And so I feel like there was a lot of themes of like Grace becoming her own person and like making decisions for herself. Yeah. Is that what you liked?

SPEAKER_02 23:27

No, it was um, you know, I am running on fumes this morning. I literally remembered it and I forgot again. Give me one second, give me one second.

SPEAKER_04 23:36

Okay, can I bring up something that I didn't like? Yes. I feel like we just all of the sudden started having an ADHD plot point. Oh, for Phoebe. Yeah, like I just feel like we just kind of it just like became part of the story out of nowhere, and I'm like, what? They're just trying to come up with something for them to like have to talk about now that the injury is over, essentially.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

Yeah, okay, so it was, yes, I think I kind of remember. I'll get there. It was again, thought they were gonna break up and then like the end of it was gonna be them getting back together. It came to find out at some point of them, so they like get back together, they like start hooking up again. And Grace, the superstar, thinks that they are just hookup, they're just hookup buddies still, and Phoebe, the the new girl, uh, thinks that they're like full-on dating. She thinks they're girlfriends. She thinks they're girlfriends, so like they're both having these like these like same experience, but from two very different vantage points. And I thought that that was like I didn't expect that, and I enjoyed it, as opposed to like the classic trope of like they fight about something and break up. And then at the end of the book, Grace does like a pretty public coming out for Phoebe to be like, there's this girl I really like, and I think I wanna like get more serious with her. I think I wanna whatever. Yeah, she does like a public um like an interview, which she doesn't like doing interviews, and like basically comes out and like essentially asks Grace to or asks Phoebe to be her girlfriend via this interview, and like little little does Grace know that Phoebe thinks they're already dating. Which can I say is crazy because Yeah, I agree, but it was more interesting to read than No, no, no, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 25:20

I I like I agree, I liked it, but I just like it's just so funny that Phoebe thinks they're girlfriends, because I'm like, You guys are not sharing anything. What do you mean you guys are girlfriends?

SPEAKER_03 25:30

Yeah well, isn't it because they have the exclusive child? Yeah, that's that's what put it in her head. I see, I like that type of different perspective. There's a really good Netflix series out there with like a mother-in-law and the daughter, and like they execute that plot really well where it's a two perspective. I don't think I don't think I was confused by like the different perspective. I don't feel like it got teed up in a way that like really was like kept me hooked, if you will. Yeah. I was I was definitely confused by why one of them thought they were girlfriends and the other didn't. But I also agree with you that that they were pushing ADHD plot. And I was getting upset because my culture is not your cultural. Well, it's just like if you have ADHD. I don't know. No, you go. I just like was like, I it just was a lot for me because Grace was like diagnosing her, and so one, it's like chill, okay? So like she doesn't need to be on medicine if she doesn't want to. This is not the only path forward. And two, she makes the doctor's appointment, and it's just like you just met, like, chill, like it just was a lot for me. And then for Phoebe to be like, oh my god, thank you so much. Like, this is exactly like it's like, no, like that's too much.

SPEAKER_04 26:51

Yeah, I didn't like, I just I just it was weird, it was and I just feel like through the whole book they really did not have chemistry. Yeah, I didn't feel anything for these two. I wasn't really like locked in, being like, I'm really rooting for them. It started getting hard for me to read towards the end.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

Yeah. Because Grace just had so many emotional insecurities that like in the real world, I just don't feel like it would be a healthy dynamic. Oh no, not at all. They're gonna break up for sure. There's still no way they're still together. And then they'll get back together in the trilogy. Yeah, yeah. But then in the sequel to the trilogy, I think they might get married just to get a divorce in the trilogy to the trilogy. Yeah, exactly. Wow, Claire has the whole has the whole plot mapped plot mapped out. Thank you, Scream. You guys execute the trilogy perfectly. Give us a call.

SPEAKER_02 27:37

Yeah. Um I am excited for the TV show though. Yeah. I think it'll be good.

SPEAKER_04 27:44

We'll see. Oh, I hope you're like a lot of lesbian media, not so good.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

Yeah. I really wish they would change the name.

SPEAKER_03 27:53

Citizen invite to the red carpet.

unknown 27:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:56

We're obviously the biggest fans of this piece of work. Uh, I'm trying to think if there was anything else.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

I thought the ending was weak. It was like, we're here. This is what we've been building to. I'm already in the epilogue.

SPEAKER_04 28:11

Yeah, it did just kind of fizzle out almost. It didn't really like come to a point at the end.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

But I I really did think it was gonna be worse. That's crazy. Yeah. And I thought it was gonna be better. That's that's crazy. Based on the first half of the book.

SPEAKER_04 28:29

Well, at least there was less there was less the cunt the cunt count went down.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:35

There was still there was there was still Fold's talk, but but we gotta we got away from that. But yeah, they really got into it quick and then no more sex. At least written, at least written out. Yeah. Which I found interesting. I feel like it's like, oh, we're gonna hook you in with this. Yeah. And then you're gonna have to painfully get through the the back half of it. Not that can I also say, not that the sex parts were enjoyable.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Right? No, there's too much, there was too much cunt talk. If they were even kind of enjoyable, they got immediately ruined by your grandma texting you in the middle of it. My grandma calling me in the middle of it, followed by them using my.

SPEAKER_04 29:24

I will be honest, I would be reading that in bed next to Amy and going, oh. She'd be like, what's going on? I'm like, they're having sex again.

SPEAKER_03 29:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:35

I think this book made me a little homophobic. I thought something changed about you, Tip. Yeah. Uh yeah. Not my favorite, but hey, now we know. And honestly, we needed a nice little we needed a nice easy read after Schrdinger's cat.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

And for getting about four, I don't know. I think that's actually being kind. I think from for three, three to three and a half hours of sleep, this is this is one of the only books I could probably talk about today.

SPEAKER_04 30:05

Oh my god, we're only 30 minutes in. I don't think we have much else to talk about.

SPEAKER_03 30:10

What was I saying last night? Sex and what?

SPEAKER_04 30:14

What? I don't remember this part of the night.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

What'd you say? I thought that we had because it was like sex and making money. That was that okay. My girlfriend was.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

I was also like, who's who's Claire having sex with this week?

SPEAKER_03 30:29

No, sex isn't smut, you guys. Oh, smut and money, I think. There was, I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

I don't remember this at all.

SPEAKER_03 30:37

All right.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

Because we were talking about how we were gonna have to record this morning.

SPEAKER_03 30:41

Sex and money, baby. Yeah, um, should we rank this book? Because I rank it a one.

SPEAKER_02 30:49

Well, that's a do not finish. So a one-five or one, two, one, two, five.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

Okay. Well, I I feel like one. Okay, well, that's fine.

SPEAKER_04 30:59

That's fine. That's fine. One. I'm gonna go a 1.5 as well. Oh, wait, Claire, you said 1.5.

SPEAKER_03 31:04

Yeah. Alright. Because I'm being punished because I did my job of finishing the book.

SPEAKER_04 31:09

Yeah. There's a there what was the one book you didn't finish? Was it Bunny 2 or probably.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

Yeah, it was Bunny. Because neither of you bitches finished Bunny 2. Yeah, I did. Well, eventually.

SPEAKER_04 31:22

It was just it was just it was two weeks later.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

Um, alright, we got I'm going and I'm gonna go 225, and that's only because I was a little surprised by I'm glad it touched one of us.

SPEAKER_03 31:32

I'm glad one of us only touched all of us, whether we wanted it to or not.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

I wanted, or no, I think my expectations are just so incredibly low after the first half? Yeah. So that brings our um grand total. Uh as a reminder, last week's average was 1.83 across the board. This week's average. They do they didn't indeed lose us in the second half. 1.75 average across the board.

SPEAKER_04 32:00

And what's the lowest?

SPEAKER_02 32:01

And that is our lowest book thus far. Uh, that's our first book in the ones. That's our first book that's averaging below a 2.5.

SPEAKER_04 32:10

Okay. And I'd like to apologize because I bet the other one, the one above it, is probably Bunny.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

Bunny. Or codependent in a more codependent amount 317.

SPEAKER_04 32:20

Oh, that's not so bad. Well, I think we probably rated it high in the first half and then we lost it in the second. Dipped.

unknown 32:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:26

I would I would like to remind you that I put a bunch of free stuff outside in a box, and the only thing that was left in the morning was codependent no more.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

That's so funny. I do feel like all of the um because I'm I'm reading a couple other like this was written by a psychologist in the 80s type of books, and I feel like there's something about a like a self-help book from the 80s that is structured and written, and like they all kind of sound alike. Yeah. Like it's it's kind of and I don't figured out the formula and just kind of stayed in it. And I don't know that I like it.

SPEAKER_03 33:02

But alas. Well, the good thing is you know they're cited.

SPEAKER_02 33:05

They're what?

SPEAKER_03 33:06

They're cited, they got their sources, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:08

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_04 33:10

Um Courtney, would you like to let people know what we're reading next? I just need to look it up.

SPEAKER_02 33:17

Um, I think it's like a blue I s oh, uh I see you've called in dead is the name of it. And it is um a book about an obituary writer who's going through a particularly hard time. He's uh going through a divorce and some other stuff, I'm not sure. And he gets drunk one night and writes his own obituary and accidentally publishes it to the newspaper where he works. So that's the that's the I don't know. And it's a piece of fiction? It's contemporary fiction.

SPEAKER_04 33:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

And it's supposed to be funny and it got good reviews. And I haven't picked a fiction book yet, so I feel very um very stressed about this.

SPEAKER_03 33:56

What's contemporary fiction mean?

SPEAKER_02 33:58

I just like it, I think it was written like within the last year or two. I don't know if that's what that means. Paige? Hey, Paige. You know what contemporary means?

unknown 34:07

Yeah, like uh.

SPEAKER_04 34:11

Okay, okay, hold on. Paige is uh checking her sources. Or contemporary fiction Oh yeah, I think it should be good.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

I'm excited. The one person I know that's ready, I gave it a five.

SPEAKER_04 34:22

Oh, Paige has a Paige is running the intern is running a piece of paper over to me to tell me the definition of contemporary. Give her give her the mic. Um yeah, here, can you get intern, can you like know what that means?

SPEAKER_05 34:39

Okay. Contemporary and this is well contemporary fiction is a literary category encompassing stories set in the present day or a very recent past. It focuses on relatable characters and real life situations.

SPEAKER_04 34:52

Ooh. Okay, so sounds like every book we've ever read. You mean Page? Thanks, Page. Oh, yeah, sorry, thank you, Paige. Thank you, Paige. Um, great. Well, short episode, which is crazy because I feel like we talked 30 minutes up front about casino.

unknown 35:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:11

My brain is wet. Talk about wet folds. Jesus prize. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Tiff got smooth brain.

SPEAKER_04 35:26

Smooth brain right now. No, no folds.

SPEAKER_03 35:29

Oh well, thanks for dipping our toes into smut. I feel like we're gonna have to give smut another another go.

SPEAKER_04 35:36

Yeah, we should try to find like good sm good smut. Because I'd rather do my research.

SPEAKER_03 35:43

Yeah. I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:48

I'm a little uh sad that our our in-person pod recording is so short.

SPEAKER_04 35:54

But this book, I mean, this happened at the first. There's just like not a lot to discuss. There's not much to discuss.

SPEAKER_03 35:59

And I think that these characters and their love story makes me mad because I think it'd be a really toxic relationship in real life. Grace just had so many insecurities that she projected on a feeble. She sure did, absolutely. And just self-diagnosing her. Self-diagnosing if you diagnose somebody else.

SPEAKER_04 36:17

Uh it'd be uh like just you diagnosing you. Yeah, uh yeah. Auxiliary diagnosing, contemporary diagnosing. Claire just did something crazy.

SPEAKER_03 36:35

Alright, fellas. It's been a blast.

SPEAKER_04 36:38

Great job. Thanks for coming into town. Hey, just for this. You know what time it is?

SPEAKER_03 36:43

I think it's time we go to the casino.

SPEAKER_02 36:45

Oh my god. Amy, Amy just Amy just gave a look.

SPEAKER_04 36:50

I will say, watching Amy ask her mom to pick up my bag that I left at the casino was so funny because she at one point asked if it was open 24-7. Amy put the phone down from her ear and just gave me a look. Is it open 24-7? I don't know. And I was like, I would have no idea. They're certainly open till 4 a.m. They're certainly open till 4 a.m. They do have a last call for alcohol though, which is crazy. Yeah, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

She came over and was like, last call. And Tiff, Tiff said, Does this place close? Oh, you know what? And we got our answer. She said no, just out just alcohol. So it is 24 7.

SPEAKER_04 37:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

Oh, God.

SPEAKER_04 37:27

Wow. You missed. I was well, anyways, we should hang up until I can tell Amy what she missed. I just uh okay, bye. Okay. Bye. Bye.