Priya tossed her hair so her earrings jangled. “I was just about to say the same thing to you.”
They both cracked up. A very drunk guy at a bar a few months before had told them each, separately, that she was devastatingly beautiful, and they’d been trading the compliment ever since.
“But really, that lipstick is amazing. Hot pink is good on you. And obviously I love the dress.”
Izzy smiled as she looked at herself in the mirror. She liked this dress too. Priya had helped her buy it last summer. It was color-blocked, red and pink—a combination that she hadn’t been sure she could pull off until Priya had gasped in glee when she’d come out of the dressing room. But Priya had been right, these colors looked great against her brown skin, especially with the hot-pink lipstick.
“I figure we’re in California, might as well wear something other than black.” She tucked one of her braids back into her big topknot and slung her badge over her neck. Okay, she was ready. “Come on, let’s get there before people eat all the good snacks.”
They made a beeline for the bar as soon as they walked into the cocktail party and managed to immediately snag glasses of the cheap white wine the bar was serving. Izzy turned around to tell Priya they should go find some of their other friends from TAOAT—and the snacks—when she came face-to-face with Josephine Henry.
“Isabelle, hello,” Josephine said. “So nice to see you again.”
“Hi, Josephine,” Izzy said. Did she sound normal? Probably not. She’d wondered, too often, how different things might be for her if she’d gotten that editorial assistant job with Josephine instead of with Marta. How much better Josephine would have been as a mentor, how much more she would have learned, how much more comfortable she’d be about speaking up.
Maybe none of this would be the case. Who knew? Maybe this was all about the grass being greener on the other side. But she didn’t think so.
Izzy shifted her wineglass from one hand to another and tried to look casual. “It’s great to see you,” she said. “How are you?”
Josephine smiled at her. “I’ll definitely be better once I have a glass of wine, you know how the first days of these things are, so rushed and busy.” She glanced down at Izzy’s name tag. “Oh, that’s right, you’re over at TAOAT now. Who are you working for?”
Priya melted away. She knew Izzy’s history with Josephine.
“Marta Wallace.” Izzy gestured to the room. “She’s here somewhere.”
Josephine laughed. “I’m sure I’ll run into her at some point tonight. It’s always so funny at these things—we all work just blocks from one another in New York, and yet we’re on the other side of the country and I run into people I haven’t seen in nine months.”
The bartender handed Josephine a glass of wine, and she nodded her thanks. Izzy started to back away—she assumed Josephine would need to go talk to more important people. But instead, Josephine stepped to the side and motioned for Izzy to follow her.
“I haven’t seen you for a while. How’s it going for you, Isabelle?”
Izzy knew how she was supposed to respond to questions like this, what people wanted to hear. She did it all the time.
“Oh, everything is great! Busy, but a lot of fun! Working in publishing is a dream come true, and it’s so exciting to be here!”
Whenever she said this, she put on a bright smile, she threw conviction in her voice, and her audience was satisfied. But somehow, this time, her heart wasn’t in it. Maybe she’d done it too many times, maybe it was because she knew Josephine, at least a little, maybe it was because of what Gavin had told her the week before, but her words came out flat, almost angry.
Josephine winced. “Oof, that bad?”
Oh no. She had to recover from this. She didn’t want Josephine to think she was ungrateful.
“I didn’t mean to say it like that! It’s just—”
Josephine stopped her. “Yes you did. Come on, this is me you’re talking to.”
Izzy was surprised into laughter. Josephine grinned, too, but from the look on her face, Izzy could tell she really wanted to know the answer.
“I’m okay,” she said, after thinking about it for a little while. “There’s a lot I love about working in publishing. But it can be hard sometimes. For…a lot of reasons.”
Izzy could tell from the look in Josephine’s eyes that she understood.
“Yeah, it really can be.” Josephine gestured to the room. “When I started out, I was one of only a handful of Black people in these rooms. Now I’m one of maybe two handfuls.” She sighed. “I really thought it would be better by now.”