Page 60 of Smoke and Fire
Bastian:We had to pull off the road to wait for lightning to pass. I have one bar of service.
Dahlia:Then let me update you.
GIF
I sent a GIF of a child rubbing their hands together in a maniacal, menacing way, then typed all my observations in quick-time fashion.
Dahlia:Social media is raging, although the influencers haven’t posted yet. The e-book is spoken about more than the audiobook. Paperbacks have been sent, but no paperback-specific influencer has received them yet, from what I can tell. Emails are sparse. Did you know there’s a Tweetastic account?
Bastian:Oops, forgot. Sorry
Dahlia:You had so many people talking about you there, the page wouldn’t load.
Bastian:GIF
I burst out laughing at the GIF of a blushing little boy that whisperedsorryand crept out of the frame. If Bastian hadn’t had my heart before, his perfect GIF did it now.
Dahlia:Fortunately, I’ve got all day.
Bastian:Don’t you have to work at the Frolicking Moose today?
Dahlia:Mav is covering for me.
Bastian:Because of the launch?
Dahlia:Of course! How could I show up for you while making cappuccinos? I got your back!
Several minutes passed before his next reply followed.
Bastian:Thanks.
I suppressed an eye roll. For being an author, he didn’t have a lot to say in real life. Maybe he used up all his words in his books.
With a sigh, I turned back to the computer. Before too long, another text came.
Bastian:Any sign of Katrina?
I chewed on my bottom lip.Thatwas the real question. I’d hesitated to back out of my shift because I wanted to see if Katrina showed up. Ultimately, I decided that it wouldn’t matter if she did. Mav would have no idea what Katrina was talking about if she asked about Jess, and Katrina had girlfriends with her anyway.
Besides, I hadn’t mentioned Katrina’s appearance as the Lolo character to Bastian. It seemed too . . . weird . . . to say over a text. He returned in just a few days, which would be an easier time to let it spill.
Dahlia:No sign of Katrina problems yet.
Bastian:Good
The utter lack of hearing from his agent made me nervous, but I had no idea why. Surely, she emailed him to a personal account that he’d vaguely mentioned. Texted too, I would imagine. If I really wanted to snoop, I could probably get into his personal email, but I wouldn’t do that.
From what little he’d said about Priyanka, she seemed like the involved type. His computational disarray and lack of connection to social media probably meant that he needed her to be the involved type.
Dahlia:Have you heard from Priyanka?
Bastian:Nah. She’ll call when I tell her I’m back. She normally leaves me alone when I’m on fires.
For some reason, that didn’t alleviate my concern.
Dahlia:Any updates on the fire?
Bastian:It died down a bit last night, but still creeping along. Nothing massively concerning right now except there’s no rain. Humidity is up though.
