Lexi's Final Year

Chapter 29

Lexi was back at Mandy's office the following Monday to go over Reaver Publications' contract. Mandy revealed that Write House Agency's legal team had already double-checked the contract to ensure that it looked good. With their necessary seal of approval, Lexi was already feeling confident about her future.

"This looks great!" she exclaimed before signing it.

"Excellent," Mandy said with a wide smile.

With her signature now inked on the contract, Lexi sat back across from her literary agent and took in her new reality. Her blue-green eyes widened a bit as she grinned in disbelief.

"Are you okay?" Mandy asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Lexi answered. "It's just...I wasn't sure if this moment would ever happen. Silly, I know. But it's all so surreal."

Mandy's smile turned warm. "It's certainly a big moment for any budding author. I'm so happy for you."

"Thanks," Lexi said. "Quick question— Do you have an idea as to when my book will be released? I didn't see that mentioned in the contract. Then again, maybe that wasn't supposed to be in there?"

"I wish I could say, but I honestly don't know," Mandy revealed. "But Reaver Publications is known to move quite fast, from what I've heard. A lot of times, the publication process can take a year or so to happen. But they try to have it done in under a year, as they have dozens of employees who work hard to get books out quickly. One of them told me that they were aiming for September 4th, but we'll see."

"I understand, and that's totally fine," Lexi replied. "And I know I already said thank you, but I wanted to do so again."

She then pulled a hot pink gift bag from her tote and passed it to her literary agent.

"Oh my God, you did not have to do this," she remarked as she pulled out the gift— a bottle of champagne. It had a pink label and a pink ribbon around the bottle's neck.

"I figured that you like pink," Lexi joked. "I hope you like it."

"It's perfect! Thank you so much," Mandy said. "Now this will be a little less awkward."

She then produced a white gift bag from underneath her desk and gave it to Lexi. It was a bottle of expensive-looking champagne with a gold label.

"Thank you for giving me this," Lexi remarked. "And seriously— thank you so, so much for everything. I really love having you as my agent."

"Aww, you're so welcome!" Mandy exclaimed. "Oh, before I forget— I'd recommend working on a new book in the meantime. I don't know if you've already started a new one, but it's better to start now instead of later. I know Reaver Publications said they were hoping for your next manuscript to be written by next winter, hopefully."

"Oh, definitely. I've already been doing a bunch of brainstorming and whatnot. My goal is to start writing my next manuscript sometime in March."

"Excellent! That sounds great."

Once the meeting wrapped up, Lexi took an Uber back to her apartment. Mandy was right— she needed to start writing a new book soon. But now that she was in the thick of her last semester at New York University, she couldn't lose sight of completing her degree.

I can definitely start a new manuscript next month, but I can't focus solely on that, she thought during her ride home. But once school's done, I can focus on writing 100 percent.

She suddenly thought about her job at Barnes & Noble. The advance she was guaranteed for her book was a nice sum— $25 000. It wouldn't be enough to live off of alone, but it was more money than anticipated.