From: Alex Maxwell
To: Nathan Thomas
Subject: Impossible
Nathan,
I cannot work with Jess. She is impossible.
Alex
From: Jess Martin
To: Nathan Thomas
Subject: Update
Hi Nathan,
First of all, I want to say a massive thank you for entrusting me with the mission of working with Alex Maxwell. It was a huge privilege for me to be invited to take part in the project, and despite a shaky initial meeting, I was more than happy to go ahead and take on this assignment.
However, it’s become apparent that we are deeply incompatible, both as people and as writers, and that the aforementioned mission is, in fact, impossible.
I hope you’ll be able to find a different solution for improving this novel, which I do think shows a lot of promise – I enjoyed reading it.
All my apologies, and all best wishes,
Jess Martin
From: Nathan Thomas
To: Alex Maxwell; Jess Martin
Subject: Meeting
Dear Alex and Jess,
Thank you for your separate emails updating me on the situation. I propose that we meet at your earliest convenience.
Would 9 a.m. this coming Monday suit?
Kind regards,
Nathan
Chapter Eleven
Jess
This time, Jess wears flat shoes and allows plenty of time. There won’t be a repeat of the helplessness of the last meeting, even if her ankle does occasionally throb, making her wince. She won’t let Alex see that. She won’t show any signs of weakness whatsoever. Although, admittedly, perhaps turning up at the meeting with Nathan is a sign of weakness in the first place. She’d meant her email resigning from her assignment as Alex’s editorial consultant to be strong, to be final, and she imagines she’s been summoned in order to retract that resignation. She also imagines that Alex will be there for similar reasons.
Shockingly, she arrives before he does.
‘Should we wait for Alex, or … ?’ She feels mildly traitorous starting the meeting without him, though she’s not quite sure why.
‘No, no,’ Nathan says, opening his office door wide and gesturing for her to come in. ‘This has actually worked out well. There are some things I probably need to explain before he joins us.’ He pauses, a verbal paragraph break, and then launches into the reason forwanting to see her. ‘The thing is, I’ve known him a long time, Jess. I don’t know if he’s told you, but we’ve been friends since university. And I know him well enough to know that he’s embarrassed about needing help. His first three books came relatively easy to him, and he got used to that. He wrote some pretty cocky pieces about how you should write every day, how writer’s block is a fallacy – you know, all the classic arrogant young-male-writer stuff. And then he found himself in a situation where he had to swallow some of his own words. It’s not easy for him. And those MFAs, well … they can be useful, but they can also breed a certain kind of contempt in writers, especially writers who were prone to contempt in the first place, to superiority about a certain kind of book.’
None of this is news to Jess. ‘Yes. That’s why I don’t think this is ever going to work. This partnership, I mean.’ She feels her own ears getting warm, probably pink. ‘Writingpartnership.’
