“She’s decent most days,” Edith said, waving her hand in dismissal. “Lily is a career assistant type. She’ll be with us for a long time.”
Lily smarted at Edith’s words. Not just her words, but the way she’d said them. Lily had literally just asked for a promotion. She obviously didn’t want to be a career assistant!
She thought again about what Nick had said to her. You’re the most capable person I know. He was right. Lily was capable. Months ago, she’d been a mumbling, hesitant girl in the elevator who couldn’t even look Nick in the eye. And now she was in love with him. If she hadn’t taken the leap all those days ago, who knew where they would be. Life was about the leap.
Fuck it. No more of this bullshit. Lily owed Edith nothing. If she could finally stand up to her family, she could surely stand up to Edith.
She took a deep breath. “Actually, I quit.”
Edith gawked at her. Bernice looked on in confusion.
“You what?” Edith sputtered.
“I quit.”
Maybe the job with Francesca Ng would pan out or maybe it wouldn’t. Lily had other options while she continued to apply to other publishing jobs. She could go back to being a bookseller. She could freelance edit. She’d take temp jobs. She’d be without healthcare for some time and that would suck, but anything would be better than working for Edith. She deserved respect and to work with someone who believed in her. She deserved peace.
What the hell was she still doing at this self-indulgent, elitist party? She couldn’t spend another second wasting her time, doing things that made her unhappy.
“I’ll hand in my official notice tomorrow morning,” Lily said. “Good luck with her, Bernice.”
Bernice’s jaw was on the floor. Edith’s pale cheeks flushed red as she struggled to come up with a reply. Lily wasn’t going to stay long enough to hear it. Feeling weightless and free, she turned on her heels and began to make her way back to the elevator.
Her first order of business was going to Duane Reade to buy a new phone charger, and then she’d call Nick and hop her ass on the first flight to North Carolina because she loved him, and she wanted to be there for him, and she wasn’t going to let him push her away.
She was halfway to the elevator when the doors opened, and Nick stepped out, wearing a black T-shirt and Adidas joggers. Definitely not party attire. He looked like he’d just gotten off a flight. His gaze immediately fanned out across the crowd, searching.
Lily froze in place, blinking at him, wondering if he was really there or if he was a figment of her willful imagination.
She called his name, not caring if she interrupted whoever was speaking at the front of the rooftop. Nick’s attention snapped in the direction of her voice. But before he could see Lily, the woman who’d been speaking with Marcus appeared and pulled Nick away toward the podium.
27
“Nick!” Zara hissed excitedly into his ear. Her hands were clasped around his arm as she ushered him across the rooftop and through the crowd. “You’re here! Marcus told me you weren’t coming!”
Oh fuck.
Given the way things looked, it might seem like Nick had made a last-minute decision to come to the party after all, but the truth was that he’d been trying to get in touch with Lily since seven thirty that morning, and as the hours ticked by and he continued to not hear from her, he became more and more certain that talking to her over the phone simply wasn’t enough. He needed to see her in person. That way he could tell Lily to her face that he loved her, and he was working his shit out.
The next thing he knew, he was waiting on standby at the airport for a flight back to New York. And then he was on a plane, rehearsing exactly what he’d say to her. When he landed, he called Lily and got her voice mail again, and once he reached their building, he went straight to her apartment only to be greeted by her entire family, who then told him that Lily had gone to some work event. Immediately, he knew that work event had to be M&M’s party.
He ran into his apartment and grabbed his invitation. It wasn’t until he was on the elevator that he looked down at his joggers and swore. He was embarrassingly underdressed for any professional gathering, but his plan was simple: he’d go to the party, find Lily, talk to her and go completely unnoticed by his editor or Marcus. He’d have to pick another day to introduce himself to the world as N.R. Strickland. Speaking to Lily was high-key more important right now.
The elevator stopped on the tenth floor, and Nick huffed out a frustrated breath. When the doors opened, Henry and Yolanda stepped into the elevator, holding hands and grinning at each other like lovesick teenagers.