“That’s what vibrators are for,” she responds, not taking her eyes off of her phone screen.
Touché.
2
Natalia
I walkinto work on Monday with an extra kick in my step. Sure, I may be perpetually alone, but at least it’s my decision. Plus, I’ll never have to share the covers, or suffer through reruns of stupid TV shows. I can live for myself and myself only. How many twenty-seven-year-olds can say they’re happy with their life? That they don’t aspire to fall in love, or get married in order to complete their lives? So, as I sit at my desk and work through Samantha’s inbox full of manuscript queries about brooding heroes, motorcycle gangs, and billionaire hot shots, I feel an odd sort of peace. Maybe that’s why I don’t aspire to find love. Who needs Prince Charming when you can fall in love between the pages?
I work for an offshoot of Silas and Sons, a major agency, except we represent mostly romance and women’s fiction authors. Since the scope of my job is broad being a small agency, I help Samantha Townsend, one of the agents, go through her slush pile. I don’t mind. In fact, my dream is to become an agent one day. For now, I’ll bide my time.
I’m reading through one of the queries when Samantha waltzes in. She closes the door and sits on my desk, her outfit impeccable. I smile up at her.
“Hello,” I say, my voice perky. I lean back in my chair and cross my arms.
“Did you get the bully query I sent you?”
I glance at my inbox, automatically filtering through to her attachment from a debut author.
“Yeah, I see it here. Why?”
She grins. “It’s right up your alley.”
I laugh. “I’m not sure if I should be insulted or flattered.”
She taps her heel against the side of my desk. “Oh, definitely flattered. You have the patience to read through all the alpha-hole-ness. I don’t.” She smirks and narrows her eyes. “It’s almost like you enjoy it.”
I smile wickedly and wink. “I do have a weakness for villainous heroes.”
“Excellent. Take a look and let me know what you think. I skimmed, and it seems well-written. Oh, and Dean would like to see you in his office.”
I freeze. “Do you think he found out about our arrangement?”
She looks down at her nails and shakes her head. “No, I don’t think so.” I let out an exasperated breath. While my job is technically the marketing assistant for Amour, Samantha has been training me for when they open up another agency position. “He just said he wanted to see you.”
I groan. “Great. Can’t wait,” I answer sarcastically, giving her an enthusiastic thumb’s up.
She exits my office and I stand, taking a deep breath, readying myself to face Dean Richards—the head agent at Amour Literary Agency. He’s a middle-aged man who got stuck with us when the imprint broke off from the major agency, and he has absolutely no respect for the romance industry. He’s always telling us to findbetterbooks, something with less fluff and less sex, even though that’s what the readers want. They gobble the fluffy sex up. Since Samantha has to run everything she likes by himbefore she can request the full from the author, it makes representing the authors we love difficult.
I walk out my door and down the white hallway, wondering what Dean could ever want to talk about at nine-thirty on a Monday. I quickly go through the outstanding tasks in my head, wondering if I missed some sort of deadline or important email, but… no. I would’ve made a note for myself. I’ve been doing this for almost four years, since I was an intern fresh out of college. Amour’s marketing and social media are now functioning at peak performance, thanks to me. I take another deep breath and open the door to his office.
“Natalia, hi,” he says, leaning back and giving me a lazy, indolent smile. He’s always right on the cusp of being pervy.
“Hi,” I answer, my voice timid. I clear my throat and stand taller. “You wanted to see me?”
He nods, and his face pinches into a frown. “Yes, please sit.”
I take a seat in one of the cushy, leather chairs opposite his desk and cross my legs.
“Last week, the decision was made by Silas to cut funding to Amour,” he says slowly, clasping his hands together. “They want to combine all agencies under their general fiction umbrella. They think it’ll make things more efficient.”
The blood drains from my face, and I hear a whooshing in my ears. “It kind of sounds like you’re firing me.”
He sighs.“Silas has asked that we cut staff in half. Anyone nonessential is being asked to leave. Obviously, Samantha and the other agents will need to stay on. They have their client lists, pitches, multi-book deals…” He trails off and gives me an apologetic look. “We’re going to have to let you go, Natalia.”
The whooshing gets louder in my ears. I helped Samantha discover some of those books. I’d been so close to doing my dream job, and now it would all be for nothing.
“I—but—”
