Reading Week arrived in a flash before anyone knew it. Cassie took a train ride to her hometown of Buffalo to reunite with her father. She had managed to stay on top of her schoolwork since starting back again, which left her less stressed out than usual. She decided to reward herself by spending Reading Week doing no assignments or studying whatsoever. An actual break from all things related to school was exactly what she needed right now.
That Tuesday, Cassie and Mariana decided to hang out at their local mall for something to do. They each bought a couple of things before they decided to grab lunch in the food court. Once they had their food, they sat in a small booth and began to eat.
"I don't remember the last time I went out shopping," Cassie remarked as she dug into her chicken burrito bowl. The spiciness of her food singed her mouth in an instant.
"Yeah, me neither," Mariana said before taking a bite of her hamburger.
"I've missed this," Cassie admitted. She took a swig of water to cool her mouth.
Mariana grinned and nodded. "So did I."
For the next few minutes, neither woman spoke. They continued to eat their lunches and watch people coming and going from the bustling food court. Some were eating at their tables while others were either about to or finishing up their food. A few more walked around aimlessly, seemingly lost. The mall itself was only one story, but it was still large and had a ton of different stores sprawled about. Anyone unfamiliar with the layout could have easily gotten lost trying to find a specific store to shop in.
"Did I tell you that I talked to Isaac a couple of weeks ago?" Cassie suddenly asked.
Mariana's light green eyes went wide. "No, you didn't! Holy shit!"
Both women blushed at Mariana's outburst. Fortunately, the mall was buzzing with enough noise that no one seemed to hear them. The accompanying music playing inside also helped to drown their chatter.
"Sorry," she said in a lower voice, "but I didn't expect you to say that."
"It's okay," Cassie replied with a small smile.
"What happened?" Mariana asked. She was now on the edge of her seat.
Cassie went on to give a brief synopsis of her tense encounter with Isaac at the library. She explained how she had apologized to him for everything, as well as the reasonings she had given him as to why she had done all those awful things to both him and Lexi.
Recalling the encounter brought up a messy swirl of emotions within the pit of Cassie's stomach. A huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders ever since she'd had that hard talk with Isaac. It was freeing to get everything she wanted to say off her chest. But then again, remorse and guilt continued to gnaw at her stomach. Her apology to Isaac had been long overdue, and she knew it.
"Do you think he forgave you?" Mariana inquired.
Cassie shook her head. "I seriously doubt it, given how I've acted over the last couple of years. But it's fine. I wanna respect his boundaries and give him time to process everything I told him. He said that's what he needs, so I'm gonna respect it."
"That makes sense," Mariana said. She then smiled wide. "I'm really proud of you for apologizing to Isaac."
"I should've done it sooner."
"Hey, you did it. You finally did it! After everything that's happened, I'm happy to see that you're trying hard to make amends. Have you apologized to Lexi yet?"
Cassie bit her lip after swallowing the last bite of her lunch. "No, I haven't."
"Why not?" Mariana asked, frowning.
"I want to, don't get me wrong," Cassie insisted. "It's just...I don't think she'll hear me out like Isaac did. He seemed curious about what I was saying and was willing to listen to me. I don't think Lexi will be like that whatsoever. And even if she did listen to me, I highly doubt that she'll even believe me."
Mariana mused this for a minute. "That all makes sense. I get that you don't wanna cause problems and that you're only trying to fix everything. But I really think you should try apologizing to Lexi anyways. It couldn't hurt."
"Yeah, you're right," Cassie said with a heavy sigh.
"And hey, at least you apologized to Isaac," Mariana added. "That's a good step in the right direction if you ask me."
Taking that first step was scary as hell, but definitely worth it, Cassie thought. She then nodded and said, "I agree. I'll try and talk things out with Lexi later this month, after Reading Week's over."
Mariana smiled. "Good idea. Now, I wanna get back to shopping. How 'bout you?"
Cassie grinned in response. "I'd love that. Let's go!"
Both women disposed of their trash before walking around the mall again for a fun day of shopping and hanging out.
***
Lexi finished drinking her morning coffee as she waited for her laptop to boot up. She hadn't gone home to San Diego for Reading Week this time— her mother had another important trial starting at the same time, and her father's surgery schedule was more hectic than usual. They had suggested that Lexi stay in New York City this time around because she likely wouldn't see much of them if she had returned home. While a little disheartening, Lexi couldn't bring herself to be upset at her parents. They had worked incredibly hard for years to give her a privileged and well-off life that many people could only dream of. She was well aware of this, so she didn't bother to complain about her current situation.
With the apartment all to herself for a change, Lexi decided to make the best of it. She played music a little louder than she would if Nikita was home, and even worked from the living room couch off and on. The apartment was in much better shape after the two roommates had deep cleaned it the weekend before Reading Week had commenced. While it wasn't spotless anymore, the apartment still looked a hell of a lot better than it had prior to it being deep cleaned.
Now it was Wednesday, and Reading Week was officially halfway over. Lexi didn't have any plans, as she wasn't scheduled to work at Barnes & Noble that day. She braced herself for the possibility of a call-in, but made a mental note to not answer should work call her. She had gone in for a shift every day since last Friday and hadn't gotten a day off until now. She needed a day off from there to recharge and relax.
With her laptop now booted up and ready to go, Lexi decided to check her email. She hadn't heard from her editor, Marcus, since their initial email exchange earlier that month. The last thing she wanted was to bug him and ask about the status of her manuscript. Then again, she recalled how he had told her to do exactly that if need be.
Lexi raised her eyebrows when she saw that Marcus had emailed her late last night. She had gone to bed shortly after returning home from work the previous night, so there's no way she would've seen it until now.
It read:
Hi Lexi,
Hope you're keeping well.
Enclosed is an attachment of your revised manuscript. Please go through and accept and reject all edits.
If you have any questions, please send me an email.
Best,
Marcus
Lexi blinked at the email in question, looking directly at the file attached to it. Just seeing the attachment caused her heart to race, let alone the email itself. Seeing that Marcus had finally finished his first set of edits on her manuscript was both exciting and terrifying all at the same time. It brought on a sense of apprehensive eagerness that she hadn't anticipated.
Here goes nothing, she thought.
She reluctantly opened the attachment to see her manuscript riddled with edits. Marcus had been kind but firm with his edits, but that didn't help take away the sting of seeing them all. She sighed as she continued mindlessly scrolling through her manuscript.
Nope, I'm not gonna get upset over this, she thought as she glanced away from her laptop screen. She took a deep breath and exhaled in an attempt to calm down. Her heart had begun to race, but a few deep breaths were all it took to bring it back down.
Editing is a normal part of the writing process, she reminded herself in an attempt to soothe her fried nerves. It's not personal, it's professional. He just did his job; now it's time for me to do mine.
She got up and made herself another large cup of coffee. She had a feeling it would come in handy to help her with the new task at hand.
With a freshly brewed mug of coffee in hand, Lexi sat back down at her desk and went through every single edit in her manuscript. She accepted the vast majority of them and rejected only a handful of the edits Marcus had suggested. Due to the length of her manuscript and the large volume of edits it contained, it took a couple of hours before she finally finished going through the whole thing.
By the time it was over, her mug was empty and her eyes felt heavy from staring at her laptop screen for so long. But she wasn't nearly as upset as she had been back when she had self-edited her manuscript during summer break. That realization caught her by surprise. But then again, she had braced herself previously for this happening. She had had a feeling that her manuscript would be carved up to pieces by Marcus. That meant that he had done his job well, which was the important part.
That's more like it, Lexi thought as she saved the attachment and wrote a reply to Marcus, making sure her manuscript was included in the email.
Hi Marcus,
Thank you so much for the edits! I've just finished going through all your edits and have attached the file you sent me to this email. They were very helpful and I sincerely appreciate your help.
If there's anything else you need from me, please let me know! I'll try to get back to you as quickly as possible.
Best regards,
Lexi
With this important task now over and done with, Lexi sighed before glancing down at her now empty coffee mug. She got up and placed it in the sink, her stomach suddenly rumbling in the process. It was noon by now, and she hadn't eaten any food yet today. She quickly made herself some avocado toast and took it to her bedroom to scarf down.
Once she set her laptop on the bed and sat down with the plate of food in her hands, Lexi decided to unwind by catching up on some of her favourite TV shows. She couldn't think of a better way to spend a Wednesday afternoon than watching TV without anything else on her To-Do List for now.
I'm sure the editing process is far from over, but at least the first round is over and done with, she thought. I also need to find a literary agent who's willing to represent me and pitch my book to publishers. God, that's a terrifying step to take! I can't believe I've made it this far.
Lexi smiled to herself as she continued to eat and watch TV. The process that came with getting a book published was long and filled with more anxiety and stress than she had ever bargained for. But she wasn't about to trade it for a single thing. The end goal of having her dream realized was more important than the blood, sweat and tears that came with getting published.