Hannahm3421 asked: Dear Noah, will the next Diary story be up soon? I had a really rough night last night and went to read a new post only to see I’ve read all the most recent ones. I know someone had said some bad stuff about the Diary, but people are still submitting, right?

Wednesday morning, Brian heads to work and I’m stuck on the couch googling potential jobs while Becca goes to the dentist. She says the receptionist there is super hot, but I also don’t know what she thinks will come out of trying to date a girl who’s probably at least a few years older than us. But then, Becca’s always been more on the “window-shopping” side of dating, so maybe she doesn’t mind that.

Either way, it’ll be at least an hour before she texts me all the details, so I’m on my third search page in the hopes of actually being productive. I mean, I could “hit the town,” like my dad used to say, but no one really hires that way anymore. The problem is—well, there’re a lot of problems: my age, my lack of a college degree, my zero experience, and my lack of special skills.

I set my phone to the side, and for a moment, even consider turning it off. Every second I have my phone in my hand is another second I feel obligated to skim my inbox and see all the rough messages coming through. I replied to a couple of the positive ones, thanking them for their support, and I put out a statement telling my followers not to believe the troll, but otherwise, I don’t know what to say, and every message just makes me feel guiltier for not having an answer. Becca and I are supposed to brainstorm a plan to fix everything once she gets some free time, so, for now I kind of want to pretend nothing exists—no work, no Diary, and definitely no trolls out to ruin my life.

Then I think about that little business card Maggie handed me last night. Well, the troll thing made me think of Maggie, and then I got to the business card. It’s a whole chain reaction. Anyway, I really hate the idea of owing her a favor, but if it’s a simple job I can get just long enough to earn some quick cash, that’ll give me time to work out the whole situation with the Meet Cute Diary. Or, even better, it’ll distract me long enough for the problem to go away.

I get up and dig through my pile of dirty laundry to find the card tucked away in my pants.