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“He has one?”
She nods and shows me the profile. I had no idea, but then again, it’s not something we’ve talked about. I don’t do much on social media, mostly because of time and I find my life to be extremely boring. No one cares what a book editor is up to every day. It would be the same mundane content, day after day. Coffee, work, books.
“Huh.”
“You should download the app and look through his videos.”
“Yeah, maybe. What’s it called?”
Basha takes my phone from me and presses the screen. After a few minutes, she hands it back to me. “I gave you a screen name.”
I freeze and am afraid to ask. “Wh-what’s my name?”
“Nothing bad and very fitting.”
“Uh, huh.”
“Book Girl.”
It’s not bad. “Cute.”
“You should see how long it takes for Alex to realize it’s you.” Basha laughs.
“Seems extremely deceitful.”
I don’t know why, but she has to think about what I said for a minute. “Okay, yeah. Just comment.”
“I’ll do it after our meeting.” I’ve never been so excited for a meeting in my life. I’m not sure what went through Basha’s mind a moment ago, but it makes me wonder if she thinks Alex isn’t faithful to me. He’s never given me a reason not to trust him, and I don’t want to do something that could hurt our relationship. I’m tempted to delete the app. Except I want to look at his videos. I may have the real guy in my life but having these videos to look at is nice as well.
I’m about to leave my desk when I get an alert for a new email. I don’t know what possesses me to look, but I do. A huge wave of relief washes over me when I see who it’s from and the subject: OFFER ACCEPTED. I fist pump as I open and read that the author of the football romance has accepted the deal I put forth. I write back, letting the agent know I’ll send over an offer sheet for her to sign, and then we’ll get a full contract sent. All this tedious paperwork should be boilerplate, but it’s not. It’ll take our legal department weeks to generate the standard contract, and the agent will mark things they don’t like, thus another round of back and forth begins.
I head into our meeting with the good news. Jonathan asks us each for a status update and Russ starts off with his current projects explaining he’s a bit wary about a bombshell tell-all we’re going to publish. “I’m reading content that makes me uncomfortable,” he tells us. “I’m not sure what we should do.”
“Is it going to harm the company?” Jonathan asks.
Russ thinks for a minute and slowly shakes his head. “No, but the media will have a field day with it.”
“Which means more sales,” Basha added. “And more publicity for us because celebs will see Willamette Publishing as a place to publish their tell-alls without criticism.”
“Basha has a point,” I say to the group. “If the content doesn’t hurt us, who are we to say it shouldn’t be published?”
“I see your point,” Russ concedes. “I can’t help but worry, sometimes.”
“The worst that can happen is our name is out there,” Jonathan says. “Okay, who’s next?”
“I’ll go,” I say. “I just got word that the author of the football romance has accepted. I’m excited to work on this project.”
“Well, at least if you have questions, you know where to go,” Jonathan adds. “Make sure legal starts the paperwork sooner rather than later. Lord knows they take their sweet time. Okay, what else?”
Basha goes next, praising her author for her New York Times listing, and letting us know she’s in final talks for two more books in the series.
Jonathan talks numbers, which I hate. Most of the time they don’t make sense to me. I know what I can offer each author, and anything over the limit, Jonathan either approves or denies. Yet, each week, we go over the financials and it’s like I’m underwater when he throws profit margins, losses, and some other fancy words out there. My thing is books. It’s words on pages that take me away to some other place while reading. The money talk isn’t for me.
After the meeting concludes, I head into the breakroom and make myself a cup of coffee before heading back to my desk. I check my phone and find a couple text messages from Alex.
Alex Moore
Hey honey.
