What If It's Us

On a coffee run for his NYC office, Arthur notices a cute boy. He follows him into a nearby Post Office and learns he's gay too when they discuss the breakup box he's mailing to his newly ex-boyfriend. Arthur's heart soars but before they can really talk, a flash mob intervenes. Upset he didn't get the guy's name, Arthur salvages a ripped piece from the boy's mailing label from near the bin and tries to track him down (believing his name to be Hudson). Ben, unable to mail the break-up box because it would be too expensive (and maybe because he still hadn't moved on), heads to his best friend Dylan's house to hang out, where Dylan reveals that he has met a barista that he really likes, named Samantha.

Arthur video chats his friends Jessie and Ethan who are back in Georgia, telling them about the post office incident and they encourage him to post on Craigslist's "missed connections" to find Hudson, but Arthur's mother vetoes the idea. Arthur begins to lose hope of finding Post Office boy until, while grabbing lunch with co-workers Juliet and Namrata, a server calls out the name Hudson and Arthur's heart skips a beat. He's disappointed when he doesn't recognise Hudson but later guesses he might be Post Office boy's ex-boyfriend. Arthur later recounts the chance encounter to besties Jessie and Ethan and relates his disappointment at not finding him online because his name gets swamped by results from similarly named celebrities. Jessie stuns Arthur when, after dropping out of their video chat briefly, she links him to Hudson's Instagram profile after a flash of detective inspiration. His hopes further rebound when Arthur tracks down a single image of Post Office boy in a group shot of snow fight antics in an old Instagram post from one of Hudson's friends but unfortunately, Post Office boy is not tagged. Arthur's hopes once again flag until he remembers the ‘Dream N Bean’ Coffee shirt he was wearing when they met, so in a last-ditch effort, hangs a poster seeking him on the ‘Dream N Bean’ Coffee in-store noticeboard.

Meanwhile, Ben struggles with attending summer school because his ex-boyfriend, Hudson, is also repeating the same class. Also searching for Arthur, he enlists Dylan and Samantha to help. When he tells them Arthur mentioned Yale, Samantha finds a Yale meetup group in Central Park which Ben immediately drags Dylan along to but Arthur doesn't show. Ben's Dad suggests looking on Craigslist but Arthur's mother had forbidden him to post so there was nothing online for Ben to find, even though Arthur had been keen. Catching up with Dylan at ‘Dream N Bean’, Ben is stunned to see his own face staring back at him from Arthur's poster on the in-store noticeboard (the snow fight Instagram photo) and after reading Arthur's message, they finally reconnect when Ben emails Arthur in response to the poster.

Ben and Arthur start dating but keep having "do-over first dates” because they want their official first date to live up to the story of how they found each other. On their third “first date”, they almost kiss but then Arthur asks about Hudson and after finding out that Ben still has the break-up box, he questions whether Ben is as invested in making it work as he is. After a few days of not talking, Ben invites Arthur to karaoke with him, Dylan and Samantha and the date goes really well. Soon, they meet each other's parents at a dinner at Ben's house. Arthur has his first kiss with Ben and the two almost have sex but stop when they realize that Arthur isn't ready. As their relationship progresses, Arthur finds out that Ben is in summer school and Ben admits that he hid this initially because he was scared future Yale student Arthur would think he was stupid. When Arthur surprises Ben after his summer school class, he discovers Ben had concealed Hudson was also attending and they break up. Minutes after the breakup when he's already emotionally distraught, Jessie and Ethan call Arthur and reveal that they've been in a relationship for months and were scared to tell Arthur, who flips out and hangs up on them. He suddenly finds himself estranged from not only Ben, but simultaneously from Jessie and Ethan.

Arthur's parents will be out of the city on his birthday, which until the breakup had promised precious private time with Ben. After days of radio silence, Ben reaches out to Arthur via text, telling him how scared he is because Dylan's been taken to hospital. Ignoring their breakup, Arthur supports Ben through the crisis, rushing to the hospital. Ben apologizes, Arthur comes around and they get back together. Once Dylan turns out to be ok, they get some alone time at Arthur's place until Jessie and Ethan show up, Arthur's parents having flown them up to surprise him as a birthday gift. Arthur starts getting used to Jessie and Ethan being "together", with support from Ben. After a late night impromptu birthday party, Jessie and Ethan leave and Arthur and Ben have sex for the first time. Ben sends Arthur the new chapters of his fantasy novel, having written Arthur into the plot as a birthday gift.

At the end of their summer, the day Arthur must head back to Georgia coincides with Ben's summer school exam that determines whether he repeats his junior year of high school or moves forward with his friends. Ben wakes Arthur early with a treasure hunt assisted by the various characters in their story, taking them to significant places that helped them bond. At the school, Arthur and Ben part as friends rather than trying to force a potentially doomed long-distance relationship and they say a tearful goodbye.[3]

What If It's Us received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews,[4] Publishers Weekly,[5] and School Library Journal,[6] as well as a positive review from Booklist.[7]

Here's To Us received starred reviews from Kirkus[11] and Booklist.[12]