By the Book (Meant to Be #2)(80)
Thanks so much,
Josephine Henry
Izzy stared at her phone for a full minute. Was she imagining this? She took a screenshot of the email and texted it to Priya.
IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING???
Priya texted back seconds later.
YES YES YAYYY YESSSSSS
Izzy typed her response in a flurry.
Hi, Josephine—
Thanks so much for reaching out! I’m definitely interested in an assistant editor position at Maurice! Please let me know what else you need from me, and what the next steps are.
Best regards,
Isabelle
No, too many exclamation points. She took them out.
Wait, now it seemed too stilted. Almost unfriendly.
She sent it to Priya.
HELP ME DRAFT THIS REPLY PLEASE THERE WERE TWO EXCLAMATION POINTS BUT I TOOK THEM OUT AND NOW IT SEEMS WRONG, ALSO IS “BEST REGARDS” TOO COLD???
Oh, and should it be “Hi, Josephine,” or just “Josephine”???
Priya texted back right away.
No exclamation points, hi, best regards is fine. I know I know the periods all look wrong but she doesn’t have any exclamation points so do what she did
Izzy went to press send but stopped herself. Josephine’s first email had mentioned an interview next week.
An interview in New York next week.
She would have to leave California.
Izzy left the email in her drafts and went to go find Beau.
Luckily, he was in the first place she looked: the kitchen. Unfortunately, Michaela was there, too. Not that she usually minded Michaela being around, but right now she needed to see Beau alone.
She poured herself more coffee and tried to catch Beau’s eye, to get him to realize by, like, ESP or something that she had to talk to him. But he wasn’t looking at her.
Michaela was looking at her, with a little smile on her face. Izzy looked back down at her coffee. She should have texted him before rushing out of her room, but most of the time he didn’t have his phone on him, so that probably wouldn’t have done any good. She’d just have to say something.
“Um, Beau?” Beau immediately turned and smiled at her. “Marta asked me a question about your book, and I wanted to check in with you before I answered her. Can you meet me in the library so we can talk it over? It should only take a few minutes.”
“She did?” Beau suddenly looked nervous. Oh no, she should have come up with some other story to get him out of the kitchen. “Okay. Now?”
“Yeah, but it’s nothing bad, or anything,” she said, in an attempt to fix her mistake. Nope, he still looked stressed.
He stood up. “I’ll be right back,” he said to Michaela.
Michaela nodded, still with that smile on her face. “Sure, no problem.”
Izzy shut the door of the library as soon as Beau walked in.
“Marta didn’t ask me anything about your book,” she said right away. “Sorry, I just had to get you alone to talk to you about something, and it was the first thing I could think of.”
Beau looked relieved. And then he grinned. “Well.” He took a step toward her. “What a nice surprise. Couldn’t wait until later? I like it. Does that mean we’ve suspended the library rule?”
Izzy laughed. “No, not that either.”
He looked at her closely. “Something good happened?”
She bit her lip and nodded. “I think so? At least, it has the potential to be good. But also, it’s…” She tried to come up with a word to describe how she was feeling right now. Excited? Terrified? Worried? Conflicted? Thrilled? She didn’t know.
Beau walked over to the table and pulled out her chair. “Sit down.”
She sat, and then he walked around the table and sat across from her. “Now. Tell me.”
She tried to figure out what to say. “Okay. Do you remember how I told you that a long time ago, I applied for that job at Maurice, working with that editor I really respect, and I didn’t get it and how I have always sort of wondered what if?”
He nodded. “Of course I remember. Why, what happened?”
She still couldn’t believe it.
“She emailed me this morning. That editor, Josephine Henry. She said they have another opening, for a job that would be a promotion for me. She said she thought of me immediately, and she wants to bring me in for an interview.”
Beau’s face lit up. “Izzy! That’s fantastic news. Congratulations.”
He looked so happy for her. That look on his face made her want to leap across the table and throw herself into his arms, but she held back.
“Thanks,” she said. “I can barely believe it. Granted, it’s just an interview, but—”
He brushed that off. “You’ll be fantastic,” he said. “When’s the interview?”
She took a deep breath. Would it matter to him? Would he care? Suddenly, she felt weird about rushing downstairs to tell him.
“She said she wants it to be soon. Sometime next week, but I’m not sure what day. So that means—”
“You’ll have to go back to New York,” he said. His voice was flat.
“Yeah. I’ll have to go back to New York. I haven’t…I didn’t email her back yet. I wanted to tell you first.”