Synopsis

In this funny and inspiring novel from the authors of The Better Half, a mess of a heroine is desperate to resolve her past so she can finally rediscover who she was always meant to be.

Antonia “Toni” Arroyo’s protective mother has outdated notions for her daughter’s life: employ her natural beauty and marry young. But Toni has wholly different aspirations.

A promising inventor and budding entrepreneur, she fights to keep her passions alive as a financially strapped mother of twins with a job in airport transportation services that has her going in circles. One treasured frequent passenger is elderly traveler Sylvia Eisenberg, Toni’s sage but unofficial adviser and cheerleader. When Toni meets Sylvia’s grandson, Ash, a striking venture capitalist, luck just might bend her way.

With a game-changing new business endeavor in development, Toni hustles an opportunity to pitch her idea on TV’s Innovation Nation. Toni’s unexpected challenger? Her very own recently resurfaced, self-aggrandizing not-quite-ex-husband. As Toni’s interrupted past collides with her tenuous future, she is more determined than ever to follow through on her delayed dreams. Toni’s been clinging to “maybe” for so long—it’s finally time for “absolutely.”

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Excerpt

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2

There is a predictable rhythm of foot traffic at San Francisco International Airport. Monday mornings are made up of stress-junkie tech types flying south to Los Angeles or north to Seattle for back-to-back meetings, then home, hopefully in time to kiss their children good night. Tuesdays, senior vice presidents who used their Mondays to show their faces with colleagues and organize their week fly out heading east, returning late on Thursdays. When flying first class, Tuesday is a terrible day to try to snag a seat. After a full couple of days on the East Coast, a business dinner Thursday night can morph into Friday morning continental breakfast. The most chaotic time at SFO is Friday after four. Terminals fill with a cross-section of exhausted bicoastal executives returning after a long week bumping up against zealous adventurers racing to their gates for a weekend warrior trip kitesurfing in Cabo, a college roommate’s destination wedding, a girls’ weekend in Palm Springs, or a testosterone-fueled poker tournament in Vegas. Friday late afternoon is by far the best time for airport people watching, but weaving my transportation cart in and around the hordes whose critical concern is making their flights proves a challenging game of don’t clip the commuter.

My favorite time inside San Francisco International Airport is midweek. On Wednesdays, SFO fills with the leisurely pace of poised seniors traveling to visit grandchildren, retirees wanting to arrive a day or two early in Anchorage for an Alaskan cruise so they can “get settled,” or folks returning home from a bucket list trip they saved for years to take. From my seat behind the wheel, I wistfully observe devoted, hunched-over husbands and their white-haired wives holding hands, sure to not lose their trusted travel partner. Wednesday travelers are a blend of calm and joyfulness, their faces conveying what I envision are memories of children well raised, satisfying careers behind them, and mutual admiration intact.

I get the sense that when older people travel, they relish the journey as much as the destination, dressed nicely for what their generation considers a luxury. I’ve never witnessed an octogenarian in leggings and UGGs boarding a plane clutching their emotional support pillow. Button-downs and pantsuits are standard. Midweek passengers who have arranged for my transportation services arrive promptly and chat excitedly as I drive them to their gate or out to baggage claim. If there is a lull in the conversation, which does happen on occasion, I fill it with questions about their itinerary and their own key to longevity. Not having traveled much myself, I view the time I spend with my older passengers as a road map for a future I’d like to have, but so far I am nowhere near that path.

As I pass by multiple United gates, I wave to my friend Krish, the agent on duty for in- and outbound Chicago flights. I keep my distance since he’s got his hands full with a canceled route to O’Hare and hundreds of passengers outraged that he can’t control a midwestern snowstorm.

In an effort to entertain himself as much as soothe the annoyed passengers, Krish announces over the PA system in his baritone voice, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called flight.” He receives a few gratuitous chuckles from the irritated masses for his Prince reference. Krish knows how to amuse a crowd.

About the Authors

Alli Frank and Asha Youmans are coauthors of Tiny Imperfections (Random House, 2020), Never Meant to Meet You (Montlake, 2022), The Better Half (Mindy’s Book Studio, 2023) and now Boss Lady (Montlake; July 2024).

Alli Frank is also a contributing essayist in the anthology Moms Don’t Have Time to: A Quarantine Anthology. Alli has worked in education for more than twenty years, from boisterous public high schools to small, progressive private academies. A graduate of Cornell and Stanford Universities, Alli lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters.

Asha Youmans spent two decades teaching elementary school students. A graduate of University of California, Berkeley, Asha lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and has two grown sons.

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