Just Her Type (19 page)

“Look who we conjured up, girls,” Alyssa warbled.
“Tell him I said hello, and then ask him what that hunky Brody Goodwin is up
to.”

Kendra snatched up her phone and hit the “I’m in a
meeting” text reply option and then turned off her cell. “I’ll call him back
later.”

“Call it what you want, but it sure sounds as if
you two are officially dating. I’m so happy for you, Kendra.” Alyssa then
turned to Selena. “Isn’t it great?”

“If Kendra’s happy, I’m happy for her.” Selena’s
voice didn’t match her words.

“I know you want to say more,” Kendra told Selena.
“Go on. Have at it.”

“No,
your
personal life,
your
business,” Selena
replied.

“Since when?” Kendra said. “You obviously don’t
approve.”

“It’s none of my business.” Selena had knitted to
the end of the row. “Damn. I think I dropped a stitch.” She counted the loops
on the needle while Kendra waited. “No, I’m good. All stitches present and
accounted for.” She flipped her garment and started a new row.

“C’mon, out with it, Selena,” Kendra said. “Might
as well get it over with. What’s with the attitude?”

“As if you need to ask,” Selena replied as if
she’d explode if she didn’t get it out. “The last time we spoke about Dominic
you agreed that he was shady. Now you’re seeing the guy, and you’ve gone all
moony and Mary Sue on me.”

“Hearts, unicorns, and rainbows,” Alyssa added
approvingly.

Rainbows,
sunset
s,
sunrises,
Kendra
amended, thinking of Dominic’s words while they’d admired that breathtaking
Haleakala sunrise. Things were still good between them, but despite what
Dominic believed, their reality in New York would not have the same radiance of
a romance novel. How could it? “I am nobody’s moony Mary Sue.” Kendra, so far
from cloying Goody-Two-Shoes perfection, found the comparison laughable.
 
“Just because I’ve taken the time to
reevaluate gossip and base my opinion on personal experience and fact—”

 
“Well,
forgive me if I need a moment to adjust to your sudden change of heart about
the man,” Selena volleyed.

“Are you that angry with me?”
 
Kendra asked.

“Angry?” Alyssa said. “Dominic is a catch.
 
And now that I think about it, he’s
exactly
Kendra’s type. I can already see
the ‘
his
-and-
her’
coffee mugs with
I Love
You
and
I Love You More
on them.”

“We’re not bookends,” Kendra said.

“But you two make such a super cute couple!”
Alyssa insisted.

Kendra shuddered at the label she equated with
failure. “And we’re not prom king and queen, either.”

But Alyssa was on a roll. “Maybe you two will even
get a merged moniker like Kimye, Bennifer, or Brangelina. Insiders in the
business will refer to you two as Dom
KENi
c.
Yes! You can merge agencies.”

“I repeat, Do
MIN
ic
and I are just
friends
,” Kendra
asserted more harshly than intended. “And no matter what happens with us, I
will always want my
own
business, my
own
thing. I worked too darn long and
hard to build what I have to let it get swallowed up by someone else’s dream. I
started Porter Literary Agency for a reason. And don’t forget it.”

“I hear ya, boss girl!” Alyssa laughed heartily.

Selena trained her glare on Alyssa. “She just let
you have it. Why are you still kee-keeing over there?”

“Because I’m just thrilled for her. Obviously,
you’re not. I get it, Selena. You’re still smarting over that manuscript you
mentioned,” Alyssa said. “The one by the college professor from Minnesota.”

“Michigan. Ann Arbor, Michigan and the book is
Desperate
Passages
.” Selena filled in the blanks for Kendra.

“Yeah, that’s it.” Alyssa removed her own knitting
project from her tote.

“What about it?” Kendra asked. “You briefly
mentioned something about that negotiation, but you didn’t follow up to tell me
how it turned out.”

“Selena thinks your guy shafted her good,” Alyssa
said.

Kendra’s head snapped toward Selena. “What?”

“There is a preponderance of evidence,” Selena
told Kendra.

“Purely circumstantial if you ask me,” Alyssa
added.

“But I don’t have the bandwidth to rehash it right
now.” Selena sighed and started a new row.

“Mind if I do it?” Alyssa said.

Selena gave their friend the go-ahead.

“Well,” Alyssa smacked her lips, savoring the
opportunity, “Dominic sent the manuscript to Selena for a first read—”

“Or so he said,” Selena cut in. “
First
read, yeah, right.”

“I thought I was telling the story,” Alyssa said.
“Anyway, the next day, Selena told him she wanted it for her list. Let me
rephrase that, she was
desperate
to
have
Desperate
Passages
for her list and tipped her hand by letting on how
desperate she was from the get-go.”

“So?”
 
Kendra prodded.

“It spoke to me,” Selena added in a hushed,
reverent tone. “The story is dark, haunting and lovely. A career-maker for a
debut author.
 
She has an innate
knack for plot and carefully layered characterization.”

“Dark? That means Selena could just smell the big
O’s blessing and book club endorsement,” Alyssa said. “Not to mention the
interviews on NPR.”

“And you didn’t come high enough so he sent it to
someone else, and they came with the cash and deal points,” Kendra concluded.
“But that happens all the time.”

“Yes. Just business.” Alyssa said, looking at
Selena. “I don’t get why you became enraged this time, frothing at the mouth,
head spinning around and all. You’ve lost books you were eager to acquire
before, and you took it in stride. You’ve even lost manuscripts Kendra
shopped.”

“Because I knew Kendra played fair,” Selena
replied. “I have no problems losing.
 
It’s
how
I lost it. It was
humiliating. After the sale, it got back to me that Dominic was just using my
desire to acquire the book to set up another ‘sweet offer.’ ”

Alyssa interrupted. “But I thought that was the
whole point of holding an open auction.”

“It wasn’t
supposed
to be an open auction at that point, don’t you get it!” Selena said. “He gave
me a first read and an opportunity to make an offer so it wouldn’t go wide.”

 
“He
said
first
and
only
early read before shopping it to others?”
 
Kendra tried to clarify.

“Let me finish! I told him what I was setting up,
and he let me. I went running to MaryBeth. And you know how she gets after that
process begins.”

MaryBeth Haskell, a Winn-Aster associate publisher
and Kendra’s former boss, didn’t take kindly to having her time wasted after
dropping everything else to squeeze in an impromptu read and then
enthusiastically agreeing to acquire a manuscript.

“So, anyway, there I was, running my ass off, back
and forth urging MaryBeth to read it quickly. And then I’m going back and forth
to get at least two additional positive quick reads in editorial, and I’m
running back and forth to the Bobblehead Triplets to make sure they read it
before the meeting.”

“Bart in sales, L.J. in publicity, and Penny in
marketing,” Kendra said. “Okay, so?”

“I get the go-ahead on the advance and the terms
and generate in-house excitement. Dominic had me doing that to up the ante.”

“So you made a deal, then?” Kendra asked.

“Um, er, well, yes.” Selena averted her gaze.

“So he said that
point
blank
?” Kendra
asked. “Then he changed his mind?”

“The point is I was obviously just the tool to get
the desired offer from an editor at
another
house. The editor he
really
wanted to
acquire the manuscript all along.” Selena’s eyeballs bulged. “He used me! And
everyone at Winn-Aster knows I was duped. Everyone believes he never had any
intention of letting me acquire that manuscript. Jerk!”

“Okay, so let’s say he did use what you presented
to him. Did he give you a chance to top that other offer before he accepted it?”

Selena did not answer the question.

“I don’t know, Selena,” Kendra said.
“Intentionally misleading you and torching a bridge like that is shortsighted
when our business is all about relationships. Are you sure it wasn’t
miscommunication between the two of you?”

 
“I’m
no fool, Kendra!” Selena snapped. “I know what he led, or rather misled, me to
believe. Chicanery with semantics and pattering. He missed his calling in
politics.”

“Or pre-owned car sales?” Alyssa added with a
laugh.

Selena scowled at Alyssa.

“Just trying to keep things light,” Alyssa
replied.

“When I think back, he worded things in a certain
way,” Selena said, narrowing her eyes again. “He wanted me to believe that he
was only dealing with me for at least forty-eight hours without actually saying
it.”

“But, Selena, if he didn’t
actually
say—”

“I tell you, I brought it with a fantastic
marketing plan. I’m talking all the right bells and whistles for a super
launch,” Selena cut her off. “And I brought the coins! You know as well as I do
how small our circles are. Reliable sources told me
and
then the author blogged in great detail about landing the
sweet deal with
her
dream editor
and
dream publishing house
and how
crafty
her
hot shot
agent had been making it
all happen, setting up the major money deal. And she went on and on about how
she could not imagine her manuscript landing in the hands of
just
any
old
editor and at
just
any
old
house. Apparently, she’d made it clear to Dominic from the beginning
that this particular editor and publishing house topped her wish list.”

“I don’t know, Selena, the evidence still sounds
circumstantial if you ask me,” Alyssa said. “That’s her version of what
happened. I doubt he told her exactly how he’d orchestrated the deal.” She
turned to Kendra. “Do you?”

“Do I what? Discuss with a client how I’d like to
shop a manuscript?
 
Of course. I
wouldn’t have it any other way. We’re a team, but I work for them so I believe
the client should know what’s going on
every
step of the way. I tell them which editors I’d like to pitch. They give me
suggestions. We discuss those.
 
When
the rejections roll in I send all copies to clients, too. But I have a few
people who
only
want to hear offers
to buy, so no copies of rejections for them. It’s their choice. I share all
offers regarding money. There are a few who like to micromanage, but most just
let me do my job.”

“So you think the deal went down exactly the way
this author blogged about it?” Alyssa asked.

“No, I’m not saying that. You asked how
I
operate,” Kendra said.

 
“What if
these sources are getting you riled up for entertainment, Selena? Their
motivation is questionable,” Alyssa said.

Selena asked Kendra, “Then why isn’t he telling
the author to remove that incriminating blog post?”

“Ah, that gushing blog post,” Alyssa answered
instead. “So he’s not discouraging her from doing the starry-eyed newbie thing.
It’s a rite of passage. Believe me, I know all about it.
Many writers
are madly in love with their
first
agent,
first
editor, and
first
publishing house.
 
So of course the agent, editor, or house
that ultimately claims her baby is the
agent
,
editor,
or
house
of
her
dreams
. Because she has an agent with
an all-star roster, she gets to name-check, boast about it to family, friends,
other clueless newbie agent-less authors, and everyone else who reads her blog
and social media accounts. She gets to crow about all the wheeling and dealing
he supposedly did for little ol’ her. You know all this, Selena. If she landed
Stephen King’s or J.K. Rowling’s agent, she must be just as good as Stephen
King or J.K. Rowling, right?”

“But he doesn’t rep King or Rowling,” Selena
pointed out.

“I know that! Stay with me here. He reps name
authors who are equally successful,” Alyssa continued. “So, as I was saying,
she probably also believes these name roster-mates will most definitely read
and blurb her book, become Post-a-Pic buddies, and hang out with her at the bar
when they attend the same writers’ conferences, bless her heart. All myth of
course.” Alyssa reached for a celery stick to chomp. “Dominic’s not spoiling
her moment. No harm in that. There’s usually some buzzy anticipation about the
possibilities, the publishing world is your oyster… at first.”

“At first?” Kendra prodded.

 
“Yeah,
until something happens to flip the script, but I won’t go there,” Alyssa said.
“
I
have been well served and
supported.
I
have been handsomely
compensated for my efforts.
Sooooooo
I
still love you, Kendra-kins, for giving me my first big break. Selena, for
accepting the baton and providing bang-up editorial advice and being a great
in-house advocate after Kendra left Winn-Aster. Winn-Aster of course, and last
but not least, my
kick-ass
agent. I
have no complaints here so I’m not about to bite the hand that feeds me.” She
winked. “The orchestra is playing. End of Oscar speech.”

 
Kendra
then turned to Selena. “Did you call Dominic on what you suspected?”

“Yes, but he denied it of
course,” Selena sniffed.
 
“Said the plan had been to seriously entertain
all
great offers. He tried to make nice, but only came off smarmy.”