Chapter 29
Maggie spends all weekend working on the pitch for Ingrid, determined to blow her away with her writing skills. She stays up late polishing the pages until they’re ready for Willa to read.
“It’s gotta be perfect!” she tells Willa when she carries her laptop into her friend’s room. “It’s gotta remind her that I’m actually a great writer, not, you know, a bumbling idiot who uses her name to get literary agents.”
Willa puts both hands on Maggie’s shoulders. “You are not a bumbling idiot! You were querying your book. You’re allowed to query your book!”
Maggie bites her lips, looking shyly at Willa. “But it feels like I really messed up? And now she won’t trust me as much.”
“You’re giving her too much power again. She’s just a person. She’s not the architect of your life…”
She may not be the architect, but she has the profound ability to influence the outcome. That much is clear from the whole agent debacle. Maggie only had to mention Ingrid’s name, and all those literary agents sat up. She’s huge. Maggie points to her computer. Willa takes it and reads quietly.
“It’s perfect! Send it!” she says when she’s done.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“But should I wait a day? Maybe work on it some more?”
“How much is she paying you for this pitch?” Willa asks, crossing her arms.
“Nothing—”
“Exactly. Just send it,” Willa says.
Maggie takes a big gulp of breath and presses Send on the email.
Willa hugs Maggie and proceeds to tell her about the unexpected gift card she received from a fan.
It had five hundred dollars on it! She’s getting new headshots done with the money!
Maggie smiles. She finally managed to think of the perfect way to start gifting Willa cash without her knowing it.
Prepaid Visa gift cards! They order takeout, and Maggie helps Willa choose between photographers.
—
It does not take long for Ingrid to respond.
Wow! This is really good stuff! I’m so impressed, she texts on Sunday night.
OMG I’m so happy! Maggie types back, relieved. So are you going to use it???
Absolutely, I’ll let you know how the pitch goes tomorrow!
You want me to be there? She hopes Ingrid says yes. The Rebecca meeting was so inspiring. Maybe this time, Ingrid will give her the chance to present her ideas herself.
All of a sudden, her phone rings. Ingrid’s FaceTiming her.
“Hey!” Maggie says, smiling. Ingrid’s in a robe, in her kitchen, rummaging through her cupboard.
“Hey! Thought this would be easier than texting. Of course I’d love for you to be on the Zoom with me,” Ingrid says, grabbing a tin of tea, “but this isn’t that kind of meeting. Really high level, I’m afraid. Kinda needs to be just me…”
“No, of course!” Maggie says, trying to hide her disappointment. “Well, if you need anything else, I’m here.”
Ingrid smiles and sets the phone down on the counter while she makes her tea. “And how are you doing? How’s the plotting going?”
“Good!” Maggie says. Then confesses, “Actually, I’m kind of stuck. I don’t really know how much of the Vivian stuff I want to put in.”
“You should definitely put that in! It’s so good!”
“But what if it’s…too depressing?”
“It’s not too depressing! Not if you do it right! It’s vulnerable and real. There’s almost a Goldfinch quality to it. Have you read that book?”
“ ’Course!” Maggie’s heart quickens. The Goldfinch won a Pulitzer Prize! To hear her book even being uttered in the same breath is surreal!
“Remember the part where the boy went to live with that rich family?” Ingrid asks.
“Yes!”
“Yours is even more dramatic because your mom wasn’t even dead,” Ingrid says.
Maggie smiles weakly. She knows Ingrid’s just critiquing the story, but it feels weird hearing her life described that way.
She grips the phone and confesses the other thing that’s been weighing on her chest. “I just don’t know how my parents will take it…
I haven’t even talked to them about it. And there are so many questions I have, like why did they trust Vivian? ”
“Have you asked them?”
“No,” Maggie mutters. “It’s not exactly easy…interviewing your parents.”
“You’re afraid. You don’t want to hurt their feelings. I get it. But remember, you can’t worry all the time about other people’s feelings if you want to make good art.”
“That’s such a good point,” Maggie says. “I just…I don’t know how to bring it up with them.”
There’s a long pause. Then Ingrid offers, “Tell you what, since you helped me out with the pitch, I’m going to help you with this. We’ll go interview your parents together.”
Maggie thinks she’s kidding until Ingrid starts tossing out times she’s free.
“You serious? But Pasadena’s like an hour away, and you’re so busy—”
“I am really busy,” Ingrid admits. “But I meant what I said about helping you with this manuscript. I’ll see you there after my pitch.”
A swarm of questions flies into Maggie’s head: Who does she tell her mom Ingrid is? What if she asks how they met? What if her mom’s bullshit detector goes off? But all she can think about in this moment is that Ingrid believes in her. She’s investing in her.
“See you there!”