Toni took a long drink before answering. “I told you that Mom’s memory slips are getting worse. I found a decent memory care residence near me, and I was going to sell her house to offset the cost not covered by her insurance, but selling her house to pay for it no longer works because ofhim.And because in her situation, she was not aware that she had bills to pay. The house sale is on hold, but I cannot move there without quitting my job and losingmytown house. Oh, and he downgraded their insurance, so it only covers part of a stay at a decent place. His gambling and whatever get-rich-scheme he was in at the end has left her in a pile of debt that Ineed to sort out—all while figuring out how to afford a safe place for her.”
Emily took a fortifying sip before prompting, “So… what’s the plan?”
“Fuck if I know.” Toni let her gaze dart around the bar. This should have been a good night. This should have been a good trip. Instead, she was drowning in email from the new facility where she was moving her mother, emptying her emergency account for a down payment for that, and parsing legal letters.
The conference where Toni had been presenting the last of the papers from her dissertation no longer felt as exciting as it had when she’d boarded her flight to Edinburgh.
“We’ll sort it out,” Emily said yet again. “You have a tenure track position and—”
“Two hundredthousand,Em. Plus the cost of the care facility. Not exactly junior faculty salary. Between student loan payments, mortgage, repairs to the car, food, and utilities… I am atalmostenough to pay for memory care if I still live like a grad student. How do I pay her debt, too?” Toni looked at her best friend and exhaled loudly. “Sorry to ruin our weekend. This is my crisis, not yours.”
“Psh.We’re sisters in all but blood,” Emily said, echoing a mantra they’d taken turns uttering over the years. The timing of the gap between Bologna Book Fair and the London Book Fair had matched up with Toni’s event, and they’d decided to make a celebratory girls’ trip and head to London after Edinburgh, but that plan was about to be nixed.
“I have no more savings, Em. I used everything on the down payment to get my new place in DC and to pay the first few months for Mom’s stay in her new care facility. It’s not even anidealplace. It’s good, but nowhere near me, and I can’t even afford it now. I have two months. Two fucking months, so what am I going to do? How do I pay for the rest of her care? I can try to get a second job… and…” She shook her head.
“I have an idea… but you might hate it.” Emily swirled the last of her drink.
“More than I hate being broke? Or Mom moving to some sketchier place or living with me before the year’s end?”
“Maybe…” Emily stalled.
Emily Haide had been Toni’s dearest friend since they were ten and attending the same summer camp. This weekend, they were to be celebrating both Emily’s position at an excellent Manhattan literary agency and Toni’s tenure track position. They had done it, achieved their goals, managed their dreams.
And my dad still fucked it up, even from beyond the grave.
“Hit me.”
“Victorian murder mystery. I was talking to an editor at one of the Big Four Houses, and the word is that they are all hungry after that Regency that hit. ‘Fresh’ in publishing is really only two steps to the left, so Victorian instead of Regency would have them salivating. If you want to be the be to answer my prayers, write me a book. You have the history chops—”
“Iteach,Em.”
“Which means you write academic papers all the time. You finished a PhD dissertation. Those are as long as a novel, just add more murder and sex.”
Toni laughed. Her dissertation wasn’t short on either murder or sex, and Emily knew it. Admittedly, Toni had tried her hand at writing books during the ramen days of grad school. She’d started a half dozen that ultimately were shelved—and one that wasn’t.
Toni started, “So here’s the thing—”
“What was your major in uni?” Emily interrupted, cutting her confession off with a tap of a finger on her cherry-red lips. “That’s right. Double major. History and…”
“English.” Toni flipped off her best friend.
“Look. I just spent the week in Bologna seeing what’s selling, hearing what people are seeking, and I think you could pull this off.”
Toni took a deep breath before adding, “I maybe already have…something.It’s not what I would usually… I mean, I didn’t bring it up because of your job, and it’s embarrassing for faculty who ought to be focused and—”
“Hold on.” Emily stared at her until Toni started to squirm. “You wrote something, and you didn’t tell me?”
“Sort of,” Toni hedged.
Emily made a “go on” gesture.
“I was drowning when Mom got sick, and I just couldn’t focus on another academic thing. It’s just something I wrote for myself.” Toni gulped her drink like an awkward college kid discovering booze. She was a grown-ass woman, and Emily was her dearest friend, so squirming was silly. “It’s a book about a Victorian detective. Lesbian. Avoiding marriage and solving crimes.”
“Yummy.”
Toni laughed. “She’s a bit more my taste than yours, Em.”
Emily pouted exaggeratedly. “So she looks like your dream lady?”
