Today's Reading

As Maral's footsteps approach, I sit up straight, take a deep breath, and throw my shoulders back. Belatedly I realize I'm still clutching my phone and clatter it face down on the table just as she appears, holding two mugs, in the doorway.

She tilts her head disapprovingly. "You weren't reading reviews, were you?"

"No," I say, pasting on my winningest smile.

She takes in my bouncing leg under the table. "Ana," she admonishes.

"You look really pretty today." Major-league understatement. Even with a scowl on her face, Maral is a sight to behold, her dark waves cascading over one shoulder of the rose-colored dress she's already donned for the launch tonight.

She raises a dubious brow. "Uh-huh." Places a mug before me. "Simu Liu is all cued up. You ready to get started? Or do you need a minute?"

I sip the coffee, its dark-roast deliciosity powering through me. I imagine it washing away the prickliness the review left in its wake and flooding me with good vibes only. Poof.

Chin high, I slip on my headphones and adjust the mic. "I was born ready."

"Thank you for spending this hour with us," I say into the mic ninety minutes later. "Shout-out to our sponsors, and my eternal gratitude to Maral as always for producing this episode, for being a co-host extraordinaire, and for generally being the best person on earth."

My cousin rolls her eyes at me even as her olive skin projects a blush like a sunrise. She hates it when I embarrass her publicly, which makes it all the more fun. She twirls her finger in the air. Wrap it up.

"There's my cue to shut the hell up," I say. "As you all know, this is our last episode before a brief hiatus because we're off on a publicity tour for my book over the next couple of weeks. Check out the link in my bio for event dates and tickets in a city near you! Thank you for listening. You're all wonderful people doing amazing things. I'm so proud of you."

I blow a kiss at the camera after my signature closing line—we started filming our recording sessions years ago, which boosted our profile considerably—and Mar stops the voice and video recordings.

"So you can stop talking," she says. "Editing this episode is going to take even longer than usual."

"Better hop to, only an hour before we have to leave."

She turns off the mics. "Our run times are getting unwieldy. Can you learn to stop asking so many off-script questions?"

I purse my lips. "Can you learn to stop booking such fascinating guests? I can't help it if I'm interested in what they have to say."

"Can we skip the thing where you try to refute me five or six times and just get to the thing where you realize I'm right? I don't have the energy for your...energy right now."

I heave an exaggerated sigh. "Fine, but just this once." She wouldn't be much of a brand manager if she wasn't so great at keeping me on track.

Maral taps her phone with a prettily manicured finger. "Shanthi says the setup for tonight is almost complete." She turns the screen to me and I'm greeted by my own giant smiling face on posterboard, erected on an easel by the door to the Rare Book Room. "That'll draw a crowd."

"Let's just hope it's a friendly crowd," I say, the LitCrit review slithering back into my mind before I banish it, sliding open the soundproof door so I can go get dressed.

"It's ticketed to max capacity," Maral calls after me. "It will be."

With events where every attendee has reserved a ticket, like at the Strand, where my book launch is taking place, we know that whoever is there wants to be there. So I have every reason to believe tonight will go off without a hitch. But some of the events on my upcoming tour are only partially ticketed, with additional space available for general admission, so it's possible we're in for some walk-in haters over the coming two weeks.

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