Page 14 of Bad Words

Jacob handed over his phone, and Cassie let out a bemused murmur. “Wait, is this just because of the video? No offense, Selina, but who outside publishing thinks this is interesting?”

“Lots of people,” said Jacob. “It’s on the front page of Reddit. It’s all over Bluesky and Threads and Twitter. The internet loves taking sides.”

“Great!” I said. “So people have decided to take the millionaire’s side. Very reasonable.”

Cassie laughed. “Dude, take the win. Just think about those sweet, sweet subscribers.”

She was always calling me “dude” or “bro.” Cassie Katayama was a native New Yorker, like Jacob, with a bottomless well of gym-rat affectations. At the moment she was wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the words HIIT. LAB. REPEAT. Gaping holes where its sleeves had once been showed a slice of neon sports bra and rib tattoos.

I sighed. “I know, you’re right.” With a listless swipe I unlocked my phone. The apps now littering my background were pockmarked with red notification circles. They looked diseased. Since I’d joined Threads several hours ago, five thousand people had followed me. My mentions were full of strangers calling me names that I hadn’t been called since I was a teenager, although Scott was right. There was a fair amount of support here, too.

In fact, near the top of my notifications was a post that almost twenty thousand people had liked.

“What?” said Jacob.

“Someone called Lola Xu tagged me in something.”

“Who’s Lola Xu?”

“I don’t know. A book person, apparently.” I tapped through to her colorful profile. “God, she has a hundred and twenty thousand followers.”

“Does she hate you?”

“I don’t think so.” I scanned the post.

@LolaXu: Wow, so, the book world has reached a wild new low if this many people are defending Parker Navarro. He didn’t have to read @SelinaChan’s review! This is just like last year with the Hazel Samuels debacle in my comments lol. Friendly reminder for the millionth time: Reviews aren’t for authors, they’re for readers!! Authors, LEAVE US ALONE!

I hesitated, then hit Reply.

@SelinaChan: @LolaXu Thank you. I appreciate the support. I’m sorry to hear you had a similar experience online.

Within a moment, she’d replied:

@LolaXu: @SelinaChan Omg I can’t believe you replied. You’re a huge inspiration to me! I’m sorry this is happening. I can’t understand how people are defending a man cornering a woman in a back room, yelling at her to change her opinion.

I set my phone down, a headache pulsing at the crown of my head. The day had been so loud, so fast, so unrelenting.

“Hey. Drink your tea,” Jacob said. “Maybe help the gremlin make an animal that isn’t an unholy monster.”

I glanced down at a delighted Lyra, who had managed to force a snake’s head onto the body of a fox. “Amazing,” I said. “Right out of Revelations.”

“Selina, I don’t know why you’re so miserable,” said Cassie, unplugging the snake head from the board while Lyra stared at her with deep betrayal. “I thought you’d be thrilled to tear the guy’s head off in the Times.”

“Well, no, I don’t mind that. Since it’s him.” I paused. “But I’ve never wanted to get involved in all this public-facing, personality-politics stuff.”

“Why not?”

I gave Cassie a questioning look. “Would you like it?”

“Not at all.” She leaned back against the sofa, hands behind her head. “And that’s why I go into the lab every day and scrape my bacteria out of a centrifuge, instead of getting into a ninety percent public-facing field like, say, literary criticism.”

I couldn’t help a smile. “Okay. Yes. I want to share my criticism with people. That doesn’t mean I want to share anything else, though.” I gestured with my phone. “I mean, this is why. Overnight, hundreds of thousands of people have opinions on who I am. What am I supposed to do with that?”

Cassie shrugged. “Nothing. Those aren’t informed opinions.”

I didn’t reply. It wasn’t like I was so beloved among people with informed opinions, either.

Jacob must have followed my train of thought, because he asked, “Did you text your parents?”