“Good luck,” Clare said and meant it despite Donna’s earlier remarks. Clare decided to let it go. Donna was probably just stressed about this moment. After all, Donna felt this could be her big chance to really break out. All that pressure would make anyone act a little crazy.

“Thanks,” Donna said and stepped into the light.

Clare figured one of two things would happen. Either the agent would speak with Donna later and tell her everything she most wanted to hear—in which case it wouldn’t matter how jealous she’d been over Clare’s publication because Donna would be living on joy planet. Or nothing would come of it, and it wouldn’t matter how upset she’d been with Clare because Donna would dive into a depression of epic proportions. Clare sighed and headed down the stairs to wait in the wings while Donna began her reading.

In the dim light of the side stage, Clare stood near Liz, who was timing the reads with the microphone plug in her hand, and reviewed the reader list so she could prepare to announce the next writer.

“Excuse me?”

Clare looked up from her list. A man was standing by the speaker trying to get her attention. It took her half a second to place his face. It was the agent who was sitting at the bar with his highball, the agent who was supposed to be listening most attentively to Donna, who was onstage and barely through her first paragraph.

“Yes?” she asked, glancing up to see if Donna had noticed he wasn’t sitting in the audience.

“Clare?” he asked her and smiled.

Clare nodded at him. If he was standing here talking to her, he obviously wasn’t listening to Donna onstage. “Is there something I can help you with?” She glanced again up at Donna, hoping he would take the hint.

“Hello.” He thrust his hand out toward her. When she took it in her own, he continued. “I’m Simon Reamer, and I’m a literary agent. I read your story in this month’s Atlantic. Congratulations, by the way. I didn’t realize you’d be here, but then I heard that guy’s announcement and saw you onstage. I thought about waiting until the end of the evening, but it’s pretty busy in here and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to meet you in person.”

Clare pulled her hand from his and tried to process what this guy was saying to her while also trying to work out the response that would get him back to his seat and attending to Donna’s reading the fastest. “I work here, so I’ll be here all night,” she said.

“Oh, yeah right. Of course.” He gave her a nervous smile and dropped his eyes to his shoes. “So do you think, you know, maybe after, you’d have time to chat?”