In Spite of You
by Patrick Lenton
Pantera
Jeremy had been selected as one of only twenty students to take part in a prestigious creative writing degree. The crippling HECS debt was worth it for the promise of being fostered to become one of the next big literary sensations.
So Jeremy’s job as a fairly ordinary pop-culture journalist isn’t quite what he had envisioned for himself to be in ten years after completing the course. He enjoys his work and is completely work-obsessed, but he has nothing really to show for it.
What is more, at nearly thirty years of age, there is nothing exciting in his life. He is tragically single and can’t think of anything in his life that he is actually proud of. To make things worse, there is no way he can get out of turning up to the 10 year reunion of the writing program.
Working as a hack entertainment journo doesn’t quite measure up to the status that has been achieved by his ex, Miles. The manipulative, vicious, heartbreaking ex-boyfriend, with an award-winning book, who is to be the guest of honour at the reunion.
Jeremy did consider borrowing from the film Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion and constructing a fake successful life, but the downfall of that plan is that he is terrible at lying. So instead of pretending to have a successful life, he has six months to actually fix up his life.
Revenge is a powerful motivator, but there comes a time when Jeremy’s journey to self-improvement runs out of spite, and becomes a genuine mission to overcome past hurts and be open to emotional intimacy.
Patrick Lenton is a journalist and writer living in Melbourne, and he draws on his lived experiences to explore the modern queer world. When Jeremy’s friend Sam suggests fake-dating to help with Jeremy’s plan, it looks as if this romcom is going to have a happy ending, but it is not guaranteed.
Lezly Herbert
