Teach Me (There's Something About Marysburg, #1)

by Olivia Dade

The world wasn’t just, though. She’d understood that before she’d even understood what just meant.

Sometimes being a forty-two-year-old professional sucked enormous, hairy kiwis.

It was hard to avoid pompous blowhard assholes when they were your immediate family,

Being a woman didn’t obligate her to make men—or anyone—comfortable in her presence.

Bea pulled out one of her earbuds, letting it dangle against her faded Where Are We Going? And Why Am I in This Handbasket? tee.

Then, the edge in those familiar phrases had left him bleeding but unable to complain about the slice of pain. Because it was just a joke, after all.

You can be more alone in a bad relationship than if you’d never dated anyone at all.”

“Transgender people have certainly existed throughout history,

historians can overlook things they don’t expect to find. They’re products of their era, just like the people they’re studying.”

“Throughout world history, for a variety of reasons, people have erased powerful women, both literally and figuratively, both during their lifetimes and after their deaths.

Powerful women—some famous, some not—have always existed in world history, just as they exist today. There were influential women in every culture, in every time.”

History is written by those in power, but those deprived of power deserve to be seen too.

“No one insults Tim Burton.” Bianca paused. “Except about issues of diversity and maybe gender dynamics.”

“I don’t need luck. Merely guile and misanthropy.”

women often get cast as villains for trying to be the heroes of their own stories, so better to embrace the role from the start. Make it your own.”

“There’s a lot of black clothing for women my size, but most of it was created to facilitate the disappearance of the woman wearing it. To erase her from sight in apology for her existence as a fat woman. That’s not the kind of black clothing I wear. Mine has metallic accents. Bold lines. Quality fabrics. Good tailoring. All unmistakable markers that I’m not apologizing or looking to disappear.”

“I don’t intend to present a more comfortable version of myself for anyone. Even me.”

She imagined black could hide a lot of bloodstains.

“Being a man doesn’t even require a Y chromosome or a penis.”

“If I fall asleep, please elbow me. And if I die of boredom, please scatter my ashes directly in front of the presenter, so he accidentally breathes me into his sinuses and gets an infection.”

her lungs just gave up and devoted themselves entirely to worshipping his handsomeness. Which was inconvenient, because she could use some air in a world turned suddenly hypoxic.

She would have said he had a heart of gold, but it must have been stronger than that. Steel. Diamond, maybe.

“People judge you all the time when you’re poor, especially if you’re on welfare. They think it’s their right. That you must be dumb or lazy or dishonest.”

The system is meant to keep you alive, but also to punish you. To humiliate you.

Hemingway doesn’t deserve you, she said. But you deserve Hemingway.”

“Parenting is a real bitch, Rose. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you wet wipes or formula.”

He was so soft with her. Careful in a way she’d never experienced. There was no demand. Only invitation.

There was something especially seductive about a man who defended you to yourself. Who was determined to see your least-professional behavior as justified at worst, an actual virtue at best.

“Is your pride more important than your happiness?”

women are told again and again to swallow their pride to appease others, while men are celebrated for standing strong and remaining defiant.

And he was done accepting less than what he needed, even from those he loved.

What he needed mattered. He mattered.