I’m so excited to have Lauren Forsythe, author of The Fixer Upper, on the blog today! The Fixer Upper is Lauren’s debut, and is a romantic comedy about an underground service that does the emotional labor for women whose partners need some help. Our heroine, Aly, runs this service and gains a client whose boyfriend is none other than Aly’s childhood best friend. And, of course, Aly’s client thinks he needs some changing when Aly has always thought he’s already as perfect as can be.
Lauren is here to share a letter she’s written to her past fixer upper self, which ties so nicely into her new book! I think it’s such a lovely letter, and perhaps you might be able to see yourself (past or present) in it. I know I did. Read more about The Fixer Upper and enter to win a copy below!
A Letter to the Fixer Upper I Used to Be
by Lauren Forsythe
I see you, at twenty two, hiding in the bathroom of the shitty studio you never wanted to rent in the first place. You’re sitting on the closed lid of the toilet seat, laptop on your lap, stuffing your earphones further into your ears because you can’t bear the bass anymore.
You don’t want to tell your boyfriend that mixing his dubstep out loud in the tiny space you two share is making you insane. Because you’re supportive that he makes music. You don’t want to tell him that you’re resentful of moving into this crap heap because he didn’t want to live at home and commute into London for the course you’re both studying. Because you understand he gets depressed at home.
So you don’t say anything. You make plans and you pay for meals and you pretend you’re not exhausted getting up at four am to work at Starbucks, and going to bed at midnight after working on your coursework.
But I can tell you, little fixer, you’re not going to fix that one. And one day you’re going to realise never having an argument in a four year relationship doesn’t mean you’re good communicators – it means you’re a pushover. One day, as mad as it seems, you’re not going to feel obligated to do things for people, or to keep quiet just to make sure people love you.
I see you, later in that year when you’ve decided you’re going to finish your course and go to Australia. Well, what about me, what do I do? He asks, and you say whatever you want! You try to pretend it’s not a clear breakup, that you’re not gently waiting until the course is finished and you’ve both moved out, to be as polite and cause as little trouble as possible.
You’re both on a writing course, and your boyfriend decides to write a script about a man whose girlfriend goes to Australia. He writes it on bright yellow post it notes, and pastes them all over the walls of your box studio. You wake up to neon yellow and capital letters, accusing you of running away, telling the story of a fictional deserter, somehow trying to punish you.
Some days you close your eyes on the bed and put your arm out to the wall, and feel the post it notes beneath your fingertips, somehow caving in on you. Here’s your story, reduced to a bunch of paper in the flat you never wanted, with the boy you’ve stopped loving.
And yet you don’t leave.
He’d have to find somewhere else to live. He’d struggle to afford it. He doesn’t have many friends in the city. You give yourself excuses because it would be mean of you to leave. He needs you. You’re responsible.
But you’re a fixer. So you view flats for him because he’s too busy, and you find him a new place to live to assuage your guilt. You go home and pretend you’re still a couple. You wait for him to say the obvious.
For a while, you’ll do this again. There will be men, friends and lovers, who want your input on their novel, or your editing eyes on their CV. Who will want you to show up to their gig with adoring eyes, or go shopping for their suit for their sister’s wedding.
But – and here’s the important one – you will say no. It’ll happen without you noticing at first. But you’ll go to Australia and travel alone. You’ll put your loves and your life first, and when you meet someone who is opposite to you in almost every way, and you start to fall back into the pattern, you’ll notice it.
He fixes you too. You will arrange the holidays, but he will teach you to snowboard. You’ll deal with the English but he’ll work out the maths. You’ll tell him he can start his own business, and he’ll encourage you to write a novel.
And you do.
You write a novel about being a fixer. About giving every part of yourself to someone else, and it being taken as standard. And you’ll jokingly write about living in that room of yellow post it notes, and you’ll laugh. Because it’s not you anymore.
You will defend your loves with a fierceness, your writing time, your self care, your quiet moments. You’ll argue, but in a way that lets you learn how to ask for what you need. And whilst you are still a fixer, ready to jump into help with a box of plasters, a toolbox or a batch of cookies…you don’t always need to. Because he can fix it too.
The Fixer Upper by Lauren Forsythe
Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons on August 2, 2022
Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy
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In this funny and sharp romantic comedy, a woman with a knack for turning her boyfriends’ lives around starts a professional service to help wrangle men, only to be unexpectedly matched with an old flame.
Ever since she can remember, Aly has been fixing everything around her: her parents’ marriage, her colleagues’ work problems, and her friends’ love lives. After a chance meeting with an ex who has gone from a living in his parents’ basement to a married project manager in three years, she realizes she’s been fixing her boyfriends, too…
So, Aly decides to put her talents to good use and, alongside two work friends, sets up The Fixer Upper, an exclusive, underground service for women who are tired of unpaid emotional labor. Using little tricks and tips, Aly and her friends get the men to do the work themselves – to get out of the job they hate, sign up for that growth seminar, to do more parenting. Before long, a high-profile Instagram star hires them to fix-up her app developer boyfriend. There’s just one catch – he’s also Aly’s childhood best friend and first love. As Aly tackles her biggest “fixer upper” yet, she’ll have to come to terms with their complicated history and figure out how much to change someone she’d always thought was perfect as he is…
Lauren Forsythe lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and son, and a cat that gets more spoilt by the day. She works in marketing, studied English and Creative Writing at the UEA, and spends too much time trying to work out how she can retroactively add pockets to every piece of clothing she owns. She is the author of The Fixer Upper and Dealbreakers.
Banner Photo by Kate Macate on Unsplash
Love this letter SO much!