Being right didn’t make her feel good.
She ate the breakfast her dad left for her, took a shower, did her makeup, told Priya she needed the biggest pep talk she could manage. That all helped a little, especially Priya’s multi-text pep talk calling her many things, including “not only devastatingly beautiful but a veritable princess of books.”
Izzy looked at herself in the mirror after she got dressed for her interview. Okay. It was time to give herself a pep talk.
“Isabelle Marlowe, you’re going to be GREAT at this. You can do this job—you know that now. You’re a good writer, you’re a good editor, and you’re going to fight for your books and your authors to succeed. And today, you’re going to walk into Josephine Henry’s office and wow her.”
The Izzy in the mirror smiled back at her. She was right. She was going to be great at this.
Josephine glanced at her watch.
“Oh my goodness, I didn’t realize we’d been talking so long.” She smiled at Izzy, and Izzy smiled back. This interview had felt good since the first moment, when Josephine had walked into the lobby to get her, a huge smile on her face. And it had only gotten better from there. “If you have a few more minutes, I’d love to introduce you to some of the other people you’d be working with here at Maurice.”
Izzy smiled and stood up. “I’d love that.”
This felt like another good sign.
Josephine walked her down the brightly lit halls. There were books everywhere here, too, just like at TAOAT, and Izzy didn’t know why it felt so different. Maybe because everyone looked friendly instead of stressed, maybe because she just needed a change that badly.
But no, it was more than that. She’d lost track of time, too, talking to Josephine. It was less an interview than a long conversation—yes, Josephine had asked her about her career goals, her strengths, the kinds of books she wanted to work on, but she’d also listened to her, told Izzy some of her own goals, told her things she’d wished she’d known when she was Izzy’s age and at that point in her career. They’d talked about editing and writing, and Izzy had told her—without going into detail about who or where or how—that she’d been working on a project with an author, and how much it had made her think about the role of an editor, how inspiring it had been for her.
Izzy had even told her about her own writing, something she’d never told Marta. Josephine had seemed excited and said she couldn’t wait to read her work when it was ready. And yes, sure, that was a thing sometimes people just said when you told them you were working on a book, but Josephine really seemed to mean it.
She was aware she couldn’t count on actually getting this job—she knew as well as anyone that publishing could be unpredictable—but now she also knew something she hadn’t known for sure this morning: The rushed trip back from California had been worth it.
She shook off thoughts of California when Josephine stopped at an open office door.
“Hi, Scott, do you have a minute? There’s someone I’d like you to meet.”
Izzy smiled at the spectacled, bearded, pleasant-looking white man sitting behind a desk. He looked vaguely familiar, but then, most men in publishing were white and bearded and wore glasses. He stood up as they walked in.
“Thanks for interrupting, I was about to start my expenses and I’ll take any excuse to avoid those.”
Josephine laughed. “I know how that is. Scott, this is Isabelle Marlowe, she’s applied for the open assistant editor position; she’s currently an editorial assistant over at TAOAT. Isabelle, this is Scott Tobias, he’s another editor here.”
Izzy shook hands with Scott. Now she knew why he looked familiar. She’d seen him at a few different publishing events; he’d edited a handful of her favorite books.
“Nice to meet you, Scott. Actually, I think we met briefly at a book event for Then Somebody Bends, though I’m sure you don’t remember, it was packed in there.”
He looked at her for a moment, then smiled. “I do remember you! You asked that question about how she pulled off the three points of view. I remember because the author was so thrilled to get that question.”
Oh wow, she couldn’t believe he remembered that.
“That was me,” Izzy said. “It was a great event.”
Scott turned to a box stacked by the door. “Wait, these just came in…” He grabbed a book and handed it to Izzy. “Interested in an advance copy of her next one?”