Queen of Klutz by Samantha Garman is a workplace rom-com. This isn’t a book review but an actual summary of what happens in the story, so keep in mind there will be spoilers ahead.
- Book Title: Queen of Klutz
- Author: Samantha Garman
- Publication Date: December 22, 2015
- Category: Contemporary Romance
- Print Length: 312 Pages
Queen of Klutz Book Summary
Sibby Goldstein gets laid off from her office job and goes home early to find her boyfriend, Matt, cheating on her with another man, Taylor.
She runs out and heads to a bar to get drunk with her best friend, Annie. They bar hop, and that evening she meets Aidan, who buys her a drink and offers to teach her to play pool. She is already very drunk at that point and awful at the pool. Annie is hooking up with his best friend and roommate, Caleb, so Aidan offers to let Sibby come home with them. That way, she will have somewhere to sleep, since Caleb can go home with Annie, and Sibby is avoiding her own apartment. They share the bed and spoon. She heads out before he wakes up, leaving behind a thank you note and some cash for the drinks.
When Sibby gets back to her apartment, Matt isn’t there. She rented the apartment first, so she kicks him out and changes the lock. She also gets an STI test. She talks it through with Annie and realizes her pride is hurt more than her heart. She starts trying to figure life out as a newly unemployed single person.
Annie recommends she get a waitressing job at an Italian restaurant, so Sibby does. Immediately after her interview, she runs into Aidan, who is one of the managers. She makes him promise not to tell anyone they knew each other before, and he agrees. He has her taste all the wines, and they have fun. He also mentions that Caleb is really into Annie and would be open to dating her, but Annie is only interested in one-night stands.
Another waiter, Zeb, trains her. He and Sibby are fast friends. She also catches Annie up on the news about Aidan. Annie isn’t interested in seeing Caleb again. When Sibby gets home, Matt is sitting outside her apartment. She tells him off and asks her to leave him alone.
Despite her firm desire to leave the past behind her, Sibby keeps getting distracted by Aidan. She survives her first shift barely, and one of the other waitresses, Natalie, invites her out for pizza. She takes her up on it instead of going to get a drink with Aidan but leaves early once Natalie starts talking about how hot Aidan is and how she keeps thinking about making a drunken pass. Sibby is jealous.
After a shift, she gets drinks with the other employees. They tell her about how Aidan rescued the restaurant because Julian, the chef, was incompetent at running it. Sibby does her best to avoid Aidan because she does not want to rush into anything, especially with someone in a position of power. There are many short waitressing scenes that show Sibby getting better at her job.
At Zeb’s birthday at a barcade, Aidan flirts with her. He points out that she said not to flirt with her, but he never agreed. She doesn’t want to hang out with him, so he goes to play a game with Natalie. Sibby is jealous. Zeb asks her if there is anything going on with Aidan, but she says no. She gets drunk, and Aidan takes her home. Matt is outside her door again. She says that Aidan is Matt’s replacement and that she wants Matt to leave her alone. Aidan stays the night, and they spoon again. In the morning, they go to a bakery and enjoy hanging out.
The next time she sees Zeb, he warns her about how effective restaurant gossip is. She shrugs it off because nothing is going on, despite what Zeb thinks he saw in the looks she and Aidan gave each other. While working, Aidan has her back whenever she has a difficult customer. She can always count on him. He starts coming over to her apartment randomly now that he knows where she lives. She agrees to engineer a meeting between Annie and Caleb. She has a small breakdown about how she went to school to be a playwright and now she has no direction in life. He points out that direction is overrated, and he likes that she’s still figuring things out. He stays the night again, and in the morning, when she kicks him out, she gives him a thermos of coffee, which feels very girlfriend-esque to them both.
She and Annie go out together. Sibby confesses she is thinking of sleeping with Aidan. Then Aidan and Caleb show up, as Sibby planned. Annie and Caleb are immediately all over each other, so Sibby leaves with Aidan. They have sex, finally, and in the morning, she wants to set work rules. She does not want to disclose they are in a relationship at work because he has power over her and could fire her, and she doesn’t want it to look bad for either of them. Plus, she is still not fully over the hurt of betrayal from Matt.
Aidan keeps coming over. People at work notice he seems different, especially once he starts coming over every night. Sibby tells him she is sick one night when she has a UTI, and he brings soup and ginger ale. It feels boyfriend-esque in a way she is still uncomfortable with. As Sibby is recounting this, Annie says she should write a romance novel. Sibby has been reading them recently, so she considers it.
One night, Aidan doesn’t come over and says he plans to spend a few nights at his place. Annie sees him out with another woman. Sibby recognizes that she has no claim on him or exclusivity, but she is hurt anyway. She dresses up for work with makeup and a cute outfit to show how much she doesn’t care. Aidan pulls her aside at the beginning of her shift because he can tell she’s upset. He says that his sister was visiting, and he is telling her only because he knows her past with Matt is driving her reaction. Because she refuses to be in a relationship with him, he does not owe her explanations like this. She sees his point.
When she goes out to work, she sees Matt on a date with Taylor. She immediately turns around and says she can’t do it. She tries to go into the kitchen but gets hit in the face by the door instead. Aidan picks her up and carries her to the hospital. She has to rest, but the fracture isn’t bad. This is especially a relief because Sibby is Jewish and already liked the nose she had. Aidan takes her home and cares for her until he needs to go to work. Zeb and Natalie come to visit her too. She feels she has made real friends at the restaurant.
Aidan invites her to come home with him for Thanksgiving. Sibby agrees and fits right in with his family. While they are there, they admit this is the sort of experience people who are in a relationship have, but Sibby asks him for more time. She still doesn’t feel ready. He drops her off at Grand Central Station so she can go back to work and kisses her dramatically. Zeb sees them and confronts Sibby the next time he sees her. She asks him not to tell. Aidan thinks they need to tell Jess, the other manager because it is absolutely going to get out now, but Sibby asks him not to.
She keeps writing, but her romance novel is turning into more of a comedy. She gets sick but goes to work anyway and ends up waiting on a famous actor and a model. She spills all over the actor, but he is surprisingly kind about it. She texts Aidan to tell him about it and offers him a key to her apartment. One night, while Aidan is cooking for her, her parents show up unexpectedly. She has been lying to them for the past four months and never told them about being laid off or Matt cheating. They are shocked by the developments, but they both like Aidan. They are in town for a few days and come into the restaurant and hang out with Sibby and Aidan a few times.
One day, Natalie is upset at work and spills to Sibby that she is pregnant. To take her mind off of it, Sibby tells Natalie that she and Aidan are sleeping together. Aidan thinks it’s funny that she told Natalie. He wants to take her on an actual date since pretty much all they do is takeout, so they won’t be seen in public. Now that he has met her parents, he wants her to be able to talk about what they do. Also, her dad invited him to their Passover Seder. On their date, he mentions that he hasn’t seen Caleb for a week, and she realizes she hasn’t seen Annie much recently.
At work, Aidan continues to stand up for her when people are rude. Now, though, he gets more annoyed because of how much he hates seeing Sibby mistreated. The restaurant starts offering Sunday brunch, and Aidan schedules the two of them for that shift. The first one is boring, so he gets Annie and Caleb to come and eat there. Sibby has a good time, after all. When she leaves, she runs into Taylor, who is waiting for her. He wants to advocate for Matt, who feels awful about hurting Sibby. She says she isn’t responsible for the decisions Matt made and that she has trust issues now. She wants both Matt and Taylor to leave her alone. Annie says that Matt emailed her too, but she sent it to spam. She also says that she and Caleb might be in an actual relationship. Sibby is happy for her and says that Annie can focus on Caleb. She doesn’t always have to take care of Sibby.
One night at work, she tells a table of men that she is writing a romance novel. They harass her, and she tells them off. The woman at the next table is a literary agent, and after asking Sibby some more questions, she gives her a card. A few days later, a different customer gives her his business card because he wants to take her out. Aidan gets jealous. She heads out with Annie, who thinks she should talk to Aidan.
Annie says he is insecure because Sibby insists on dating in private. The bartender finally picks up her phone and then has to support her weight after she lunges for it. That is when Aidan shows up. They have a serious conversation because Aidan is sick of dating in secret. Sibby says that she quits because she is not going to have a more dramatic life if they are publicly dating at the restaurant. Aidan says she can’t quit because Natalie just quit. Sibby leaves and asks him for space.
On the way home, Natalie emails everyone to say that she is quitting, and Sibby responds, talking about her pregnancy and about how she isn’t sure what to do about Aidan. Then she drops her phone, and it breaks. When she gets home and realizes Aidan won’t be there, she knows she’s in love with him.
She can get a new phone, but it will take a few days. She checks Facebook when she gets home and has a bunch of messages from coworkers about Aidan. She realizes she hit reply all. She manages to get Annie to come over with wine. Annie delivers the news that Aidan quit because he doesn’t want Sibby to quit, but he does want to date her. Sibby doesn’t know what to do about this yet. She is excited that Annie and Caleb are moving in together. Annie checks Sibby’s email and reports that Jess just wants her to come in a few minutes early for her next shift.
Sibby is accidentally late instead, but Jess doesn’t seem upset. She says they’ll talk later and that it’ll be fine. Aidan shows up drunk, and Sibby tries to send him and Caleb to her apartment. Aidan does not want to leave. He tells Sibby he loves her. Then Matt shows up, and there is a champagne incident.
She accidentally hits him in the eye with a cork. Jess says that things will be okay if Sibby stays, but she quits anyway. When she goes back to her apartment, Aidan is there and sobering up. He doesn’t feel like their relationship is going to get stale, and he wants to try gooey romantic things with her.
The video of Sibby hitting Matt with the cork goes viral. Because of it, she finally sits down to talk with him. They apologize to each other, and both admit they’re happier where they are now. The closure helps. She also apologizes to Natalie for outing her about the baby.
She and Aidan hang out at a bar and get recognized from the video. Sibby actually signs a napkin for someone. That night, the actor talks about when she spilled wine on him on a late-night show, and they play the video. And then they say her full name. Jess calls to try to rehire her, but Sibby says no.
To get away from the attention, Aidan takes her on a trip to the Bahamas with his savings. On the trip, he’s a really thoughtful boyfriend. They fit well together. He sort of proposes, pointing out that anyone can propose when things are good but that he wants to prove he will stick around even when it’s hard. She says yes and tells him to move in.
Aidan and Caleb are planning to start their own bar. They already have a space and investors. Sibby gets a call from a late-night host and ends up on the show. The audience loves her. She and Aidan leave together, happy.
In the epilogue, a year later, she is a New York Times best-selling author and back on the same late-night show. She lets the audience name her next rom-com. And she announces that she and Aidan are getting married that weekend. And at the end, she manages to embarrass herself in front of the actor again.
Queen of Klutz is now available at Amazon. Choose the best phrase to describe Sibby Goldstein’s life:
1) Sucky.
2) Really sucky.
3) Major suck-fest.
D) All of the above.
I started my day with a boyfriend and a job. I ended my day with a bottle of tequila. I’ll let you connect the dots.
Somehow, I wound up working as a waitress at an Italian restaurant. I have no idea what I’m doing. And I’m not just talkin’ about life.
This should be interesting.
