“Syd,” he whispered, finally letting go of my hand so he could wrap his arms around me and pull me close.
“Goodbye, Billy,” I said, but put my arms around his waist, hanging on to him, like I’d never let him go.
I would, but just…not yet.
“Goodbye, Syd,” he said, placing a soft kiss on the top of my head.
We stood that way for a moment, but it wasn’t long enough. Finally I stepped back. It was important to me that I be the first to let go. I didn’t say another word or look back at him as I left.
Walking back to Creyts I let the tears flow down my face, not worrying about what anyone might think if they saw me. That in and of itself was probably a first, and a cause for a small celebration.
Yes, I had grown up this freshman year. A new strength, a new sense of self, insecurities in check.
And a broken heart to go with them all.
Chapter28
Montrose
“Billy,this is Nora. Are you sitting down?”
Well, shit. That could mean good news or bad news. I was just entering my office, having finished a class. “Yeah, give me a sec. I need to put my stuff down.”
I heard a sigh from Nora. I’m sure she didn’t mean that I literally needed to be sitting down. But I wanted to have a hand free to write details down. I threw my bag on the guest chair, and my sports coat on top of it. Quickly making my way around my desk and sitting down, I pulled out a pen, grabbed a tablet and put Nora on speaker.
“Yes, okay. Shoot.” I looked down at the empty tablet and wondered how big of a space “no deal” would take up.
“Adina loves it. They met our price.”
Holy shit. “They’re going to paytwo million dollarsfor a preempt?” The amount came out on a part choke, part chuckle of disbelief.
“No.Threemillion. She offered for it so quickly I knew that we could get more than what you and I were originally thinking. She came in at one-point-five with a first offer. I got her up to three.”
“Christ, Nora, you’re amazing.”
“Just doing my job,” she said, but I could tell she was particularly pleased as well.
“I…I’m…speechless,” I said.
She snorted. “That’s a first. Listen, they want to fast track it, have it available for Christmas gift season. She already has her marketing team working on a sales pitch for retailers. She’s going to call you later today to talk cover art thoughts and edits. She and I are going to meet next week and talk a book tour and appearances. We’re behind the curve for this season, but they don’t want to wait. They know they’ve got a hit.”
“Wow. They’re really moving on this.” It had taken well over a year from the timeGangster’s Follysold to it being on the shelves. Publishing was not a fast moving machine.
“They really think they can capitalize at Christmas. A great gift idea for anyone who readFolly, and all that.”
“Great. Sure, yeah…” I looked down at my tablet. I’d written down “Three Fucking Million” without even realizing it. But it wasn’t all about the money to me. “Did Adina like it?”
“Billy. She just paid three million dollars for it. I think she liked it.”
“Well, there’s a difference between knowing a book will sell well, and actually…liking it.” God, would the insecure writer in me ever shut the fuck up?
“She liked it, okay? She loved it. She said if it were a person she’d fuck it. Happy?”
I couldn’t picture Adina saying those exact words, or anything even near it, but I just laughed and dropped it.
After getting off the call with Nora I tried to do normal things, so that I wouldn’t obsess about the book deal. There was a lot of work to do before I sawFlameson the shelf this fall.
I unpacked my bag, putting the new stack of students’ papers on the credenza, now box-free. There were stacks of papers throughout the office in various stages of completion. Some read and graded, but not entered yet, some still untouched.
