**Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022!**A COSMOPOLITAN, BBC, STYLIST, DAILY MAIL, GOOD HOUSEKEEPING and GUARDIAN BEST BOOK PICK!'Astounding. Heart-breaking but hopeful, and a fresh new voice' PANDORA SYKES'Moving and beautifully written' LIBBY PAGE'A rare new talent' THE GUARDIAN'A book that deserves to be a huge hit' STYLIST'The literary equivalent of gold dust' BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH***Sometimes it's easy to fall between the cracks... At 3.04 p.m.

on a hot, sticky day in June, Bess finds out she's pregnant. She could tell her social worker Henry, but he's useless. She should tell her foster mother, Lisa, but she won't understand.

She really ought to tell Boy, but she hasn't spoken to him in weeks. Bess knows more than anyone that love doesn't come without conditions. But this isn't a love story...