[Second place in the Aro Ace Awards]
As a librarian working in an underwater library, Ramos likes his peace and quiet, which is distrubed only a few times a year when an author swims by to do a book signing. This time around, it's Kai, a famous writer of steamy romances going by the pen name Phish Seaman, and despite never reading any of his books, Ramos greatly dislikes the man even before meeting him, the pen name being the majority of the reason.
Once the signing is over, Ramos is relieved that he will never have to see Kai again. Or so he thinks until the library finds itself with no funding thanks to the new, corrupt mayor. With his library in danger of closing, Ramos has to enlist help from Kai, asking him to come by again for another book signing if only to get a few more months to figure out a new plan to keep the library afloat.
Kai does a lot more than that, and the more time he and Ramos spend together, the closer they get, until their tentative friendship turns into something else. Much as Ramos doesn't want to.
Robbie Blue hates clichés. And what could be more cliché than transferring to a completely new school in the middle of your senior year?
Well, how about transferring to a cotton-candy-colored private school, filled with rich kids who live in mansions and drive sports cars with private chauffeurs?
-🪷-
Sunny Palm Coast wasn't exactly where 18-year-old Robbie had imagined to spend his final months of high school. A brand new student at Harmony Heart Academy even less. Yet there he was, thrown into the deep end with not a single clue on how to survive this chaos.
Amidst all of the unknown, one thing was crystal clear; Robbie would do anything to stay away from clichés.
However, this proves to be harder than he had anticipated when he meets the school's self-proclaimed troublemaker, and everything Robbie thought he was certain of now seems as unclear as ever.