A huge, giant, outer-space-sized thanks to the entire Bad on Paper community. Thank you for being the best （and oftentimes weirdest） corner of the internet. I’m bowled over by your support and enthusiasm for this book. Thanks also to Terrence, just because. I hope you are still an inside joke when this book comes out; if not, I just made things awkward.
Thank you to my earliest readers—Ashley Mahoney, Ali Miller, Grace Atwood, and Lydia Hirt—for your enthusiastic support and offering the perfect mix of criticism and praise that allowed me to keep going. And thanks especially to Rachael King for giving such detailed and thoughtful notes and edits that undoubtedly elevated this story. Thanks also to Jessica Camerata for sharing your Peachtree City tips.
Thank you to the Mangy Ravens—Elizabeth Manley, Molly Hale, Ali Kelly, Ashley Mahoney, Peter Heyer, Kyle McCulloch, Betsy Spang, Julie Crowley, and Kate Page—for letting me mine an entire friendship’s worth of inside jokes, being the funniest people I know, and loving me and absolutely dragging me in equal measure. Thanks to Boston College for giving me these people. I hope Elizabeth’s bike is still chained to the sign outside 24 Strathmore Road to prove we were there.
Thank you to Hannah Orenstein, Kate Spencer, Kate Kennedy, Laura Hankin, Lindsey Kelk, and John Glynn for offering me advice, insight, and commiseration throughout this process.
Thank you to Aya for giving me my love of Christmas, and for making so many of my past Christmases so special. To Uncle Dee, I’m so sad you’re not here to see this, but I know you would be so incredibly proud of this accomplishment.
Thank you to Bon Bon: without your candy, I truly am not sure if this book would have ever gotten finished.
And last, but certainly not least, thank you to the readers: I know that reading a book is an incredible investment of your time and money, and I am so appreciative you chose to take a chance on me and mine. I hope you’re glad you did.