“Who are we talking about?” Lily asked, wiping the sweat from her forehead. “Just so we’re on the same page.”
“Karamel Kitty. I told you about her before. She’s the rapper I’m working with now.”
“Oh, right,” Lily said, vaguely remembering. “Isn’t she the one who exposed that politician who sent her dick pics?”
“What? Oh yeah, that was last year. Anyway, I want you to meet me at this bar in the Village instead of going to the restaurant. I’ll send you the address.”
Lily almost said okay but she hesitated. She felt a catch coming on. “Will it just be the two of us?”
“Um,” Violet mumbled. “No.”
Lily sighed. “Who else will be there, Vi?”
“Nobody really . . . just my new friend Damien,” she said quickly. “He’s the assistant photographer at the photo shoot today, and I started talking about you and I showed him your picture and he said you were beautiful, which you are—”
“Nope.”
“But he’s so cute and sweet, and he really wants to meet you! For real, you’re not even going to give him a chance?”
Lily groaned. Her sisters were always trying to play matchmaker. Why couldn’t they just accept that Lily was terrible at dating and leave her alone in awkward peace?
“Violet, I’ve had the worst day. Really. I can’t deal with meeting someone new. I don’t have the energy.”
“I’ll buy you dinner too.”
Lily paused at that. On her salary, she didn’t often pass up free meals.
“Fine,” she finally said. “But don’t be disappointed when Damien and I don’t hit it off.”
“Okay, Negative Nancy. I’ll send you the address. See you in a bit. Love you!”
“Love you too,” Lily said, but Violet had already hung up.
Lily let out a full-body sigh and pulled her phone away from her ear, grimacing at the sweat left behind on the screen. In all the time that she’d spent on the phone with Violet, the train still hadn’t moved. How was that possible?
“Are you all right?”
Lily glanced up and the blonde girl was staring at her, sporting a concerned frown.
“You’re swaying,” she said. “You look like you’re about to faint.”
Lily noticed the people around them turn in her direction.
“I’m fine,” she insisted, even though she was beginning to see spots everywhere she looked. Maybe the conversation with Violet, and agreeing to another blind date, had stressed her out more than she thought. Why won’t this freaking train move? She forced a smile. “Thank you, though.”
She’d be off this train soon. She just needed to distract herself in the meantime. Planting her feet, she dug in her bag and pulled out her copy of The Elves of Ceradon, her favorite fantasy novel. She’d discovered it two years ago while working at a bookstore, struggling to find a full-time job in any field that was willing to hire people with an English degree. She’d never read a book about a clan of Black elves before, a story that made it completely normal for Black people to exist in high fantasy. Lily realized then that she wanted to help bring more fantasy like this into the world, but for kids. So began her long journey to break into publishing. Currently, she was working with Edith on slightly depressing adult nonfiction, but soon she hoped she’d make the switch to children’s books. And in her heart, she felt as though she had The Elves of Ceradon to thank for that inspiration.
The author, N.R. Strickland, was a mystery, though. The copy Lily discovered at the bookstore had been torn and tattered, published years ago by a now-defunct British press. N.R. Strickland’s bio was sparse, saying that he was born and raised in London and that The Elves of Ceradon was his first novel. He didn’t have a website or any social media. The plain, dark red book jacket didn’t even have an author photo. In today’s day and age, it was odd but a little admirable that he’d decided to forgo anything public-facing.
Lily carried the novel with her for moments like right now when she was stuck on a train and needed to kill time. She opened the book and tried to focus on the words in front of her instead of the heat but found it difficult. The struggle to read was giving her a headache. In a moment of blissful relief, the train started to move, only to stop after what felt like a few feet. Someone opened a window and a bit of the hot air inside the train was exchanged for the hot air outside. Lily swallowed thickly and tried to concentrate but the words began to swim on the page. Okay, so reading wasn’t going to help.