Chapter 11
Maddie was the first one in the office the next morning. As much as she enjoyed working from home when she was in Chatham, she also found being in a busy office energizing. Theirs was an open environment, a big room with work stations scattered throughout. They could all hear each other on the phone and it helped with collaboration and communication.
Kathryn and Maddie and a few other senior agents had their own offices, but they all kept the doors open and could hear what was going on. Maddie made herself a black coffee from the Nespresso machine. She loved the thick foam that the machine somehow made even though there was no dairy. She’d just taken her first sip when she heard voices and footsteps. Within fifteen minutes, most of the office had arrived.
Maddie’s day was busy. Her author, Shelley, had the last of her Zoom calls with publishers, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The offers had already started rolling in and Maddie knew it was a bit overwhelming for Shelley. Like many authors, Shelley was an introvert, so to be the center of attention and on Zoom calls with as many as five other people all focused on her was a little intimidating. But everyone loved the book and as they communicated that, Shelley relaxed a bit and let them tell her how excited they were and how they hoped to help.
Maddie let both publishers know that Shelley had offers already so they knew they had to move fast. One of them got an offer to her later that afternoon and the other said they’d have something in the morning. All of the offers were good but one of them was quite a bit better than the others. Maddie called Shelley after her second Zoom call to give her the newest offer.
“This is great news,” Maddie said. “And we’ll have one more offer in the morning.”
“Then what happens? Do I pick one of them?” Shelley asked.
“Not just yet. Once we receive the last offer in the morning, I’ll reach out to all of them and let them know we’ve had multiple offers and they should submit their best and final offer. And then you decide.”
“Do you think they’ll all come up?”
“Probably not. But they will all have the opportunity. And it’s not just about which advance is the highest. You should consider which house you liked the best and how comfortable you feel with each one. They are all good publishers.”
The rest of the afternoon flew by and as soon as they were able to wrap up for the day, Maddie and Kathryn made their way to I Sodi, the restaurant in the West Village that Kathryn had been dying to try.
It was crowded when they arrived and the restaurant was small, but Kathryn had made a reservation and they were seated quickly. They ordered a bottle of a Super Tuscan wine that their server recommended, along with a special fried artichoke appetizer to share and they both decided to have the twenty-layer lasagna.
The wine and the artichokes were both amazing. Maddie hadn’t paid close attention when the server recommended the wine, but after he walked away she saw the price on the menu. It was almost two hundred dollars for the bottle. She expected it to be good and when she took her first sip she wasn’t disappointed. It was smooth and rich and she savored it.
They chatted about business as they ate. Maddie updated Kathryn on the offers Shelley had received so far.
Kathryn nodded. “They should go up some, most of them. A few of them probably won’t budge much, but they could surprise us. She’s a debut author and there’s no sales figures to hold them back.”
That was one of the things that had surprised Maddie when she first started agenting. Most offers from publishers were carefully crafted after closely analyzing an author’s prior sales figures and forecasting what was likely for the next book.
But with a debut author, there was no track record and sometimes the offers could be unusually large if there was an auction and several publishers wanted the book badly enough. They could overpay. And the high advance amount would become part of the book’s marketing, designed to get attention and create buzz.
When their lasagna arrived, they both marveled at the many thin layers of delicate pasta filled with meat sauce and creamy cheese. When they tired of talking about work, the conversation turned personal. Kathryn was one of the few people who knew that Maddie was having issues with her marriage.
“How has it been, seeing Richie?”
“It’s strange. I’d almost gotten used to being alone on the Cape. He’s been gone for over a month. But being here with him in the same apartment is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I don’t really know what to think.” She felt sad imagining her life without Richie.
“How does he feel? Have you had a chance to talk to him about it?”
Maddie took a sip of her wine. “I’ve hardly seen him for more than a few minutes. He was out with friends last night. We’re going to do something tomorrow night, maybe grab dinner.”
“That’s good. Go to one of your favorite places, and see how it feels to be there together. See if there are any romantic sparks.”
Maddie laughed. “It’s been a long time for that. We’ve been sleeping in separate bedrooms now for almost a year. It’s more like having a distant roommate.”
Kathryn smiled. “Does he snore?”
“Yes, especially if he’s had a few drinks. That’s how we started sleeping in separate bedrooms and after a while it was just easier to do it all the time.”
Kathryn lifted her wineglass, took a long, slow sip, and set it down again. “Marriage is work. There are plenty of times when I can’t stand David. The older we get the more opinionated we both are, and when he goes off on one of his rants, usually about something political, I make a quick exit. He can be annoyingly stubborn and it used to upset me. Now, I know not to push those buttons. I can usually redirect him, but if not, I just ignore him until it passes.”
Maddie nodded. She agreed with Kathryn, but it wasn’t quite the same thing. “I learned to do that, too. That’s everyday stuff though. It’s different with Richie. Ever since that woman joined his team, it’s like he’s checked out, and has grown more distant. And I suppose I have, too. It’s not just him.”
“You don’t think he’s been unfaithful? I don’t think I could forgive that,” Kathryn said.
“He swears he hasn’t been and I don’t think he has. But it’s more of an emotional thing. They speak the same language—finance—and they can talk for hours about hideously boring mathematical concepts that they both find fascinating. I guess I feel a little left out because I just can’t relate. It sounds silly, but his job is so consuming that it seems like there’s not a lot of time left for us.”
“She’s married, too?” Kathryn asked.
“She is. We’ve had her and her husband down to the Cape. She’s married to a lovely man. He’s a teacher. He and I laughed together about how the two of them are in a secret relationship, speaking a language that only they can understand. It was just a joke. It clearly doesn’t bother him. He said they’re eager to have another child.”
“But it bothers you,” Kathryn said.
“Yes and no. I’m really not worried that there’s anything going on there. It’s more that I just don’t feel like I’m a priority anymore—that our marriage is a priority.”
“And you’ve told him that?”
“To be honest, we haven’t talked much about this at all. It’s like we both know we’re not happy and so far it’s been easier to just deal with it by spending time apart.”
“Well, you have to decide if you want to save your marriage. And if you do, you need to talk to your husband. Be honest with him. Ask him how he’s feeling and see where you go from here.”
Maddie sighed. It sounded so sensible. Of course they needed to talk. She was a little nervous, though, because not only wasn’t she sure of what she wanted, she was even less sure of what Richie wanted. But she knew they needed to figure it out.