“I would say so.” I sling an arm around Meredith’s shoulders. “Thanks to this brilliant human.”
Meredith goes scarlet under her freckles, which never fails to charm me. “Does she ever stop with the compliments?”
“No,” Nadia says solemnly. “It’s one of her worst qualities.”
I smile, squeezing Meredith. “I can’t wait to spend the next two weeks embarrassing you with praise before the entire country.”
I feel her stiffen. She and Nadia share a wide-eyed stare.
“What did I say?” I ask.
“Um,” Meredith says quietly. “Nadia?”
Nadia waves her hand. “We can talk about it later.”
“Talk about what?” I ask.
“Just some news,” she says, too quickly. “You and I can go for a drink after the launch and I’ll tell you—”
“Whatnews?”
“Sweetie, let’s just enjoy the rest of your—”
“Nadia Vivian Chan, so help me god,” I growl. “You know there is no chance I am going to be thinking about anything but the fact that there’s something you two know that I don’t know for the rest of the night unless you tell meright now.”
There’s no pulling wool over my eyes, no matter how temporarily. Nadia is all too aware of this—I’m not exactly what you’d calllow-maintenance. She and Meredith share another glance, this one sheepish.
“Well,” Meredith says, her voice a little brittle, “it’s my news, really. I told Nadia this morning but we didn’t want to ruin your day.”
“Ruin my day?” I say, aghast. “What the hell is going on?”
“It’s actually great news. For me.” Meredith’s smile is a rictus. “I, um. Got a new job. Senior publicist, at Burton Publishing.”
Oh. Wow.“The educational publisher?”
“Yeah,” she says.
She told me early on—when I insisted on taking her out to lunch so we could get to know each other better—that she’d wanted to be a teacher when she first left school. A friend of her family’s is some muckety-muck at Woodsworth and offered her a publicity assistant role right after she graduated five years ago. Being up to her eyeballs in student debt, she took it. While she enjoyed it—and is amazing at it, frankly—she hoped she’d eventually be able to parlay her experience into an educational publishing job. Best of both worlds.
Now here she is, dream fulfilled.
A rush of happiness washes through me, and I can’t help hurling myself at her in a full bear hug. “Oh my god—congratulations!”
Her eyes are glistening when I pull away. And then, I go stock-still.
Wait.
She’s my publicist. I need her. How could she have gotten a new job when she’s in the middle ofthisjob?
“I know, the timing is shit,” she rushes to explain. “But I’ve been at the same level for a few years and Woodsworth has put a freeze on promotions so I’ve been looking for a while. I need a higher salary, I don’t want to live with three roommates in a one-bedroom anymore, and I just happened to get an offer from Burton last week. Actually,So Proud of Youmade my portfolio that much more impressive. They specifically said that.”
“Glad I could help,” I say weakly.
“I’m sorry. The role is too good to pass up.” She’s watching me anxiously. “I just handed in my resignation. My last day is next Friday.”
Next Friday. “We’re in L.A. next Friday. What, are you going to fly home in the middle of myAll Dayinterview?”
Meredith swallows. “No…”
