Page 28 of Isn't It Obvious?
“They’re poly,” Charlie says, still not making eye contact.
“And you’re the most monogamous person alive!”
“It’s just drinks,” he says.
“Oka-ay,” Yael singsongs. “Have fun; debrief tomorrow.”
They wish each other a good day at work and say their goodbyes, and Yael tries not to think about the podcast or her newfound Instagram infamy. She got a new shipment of books today, and there’s a ton of cataloging she wants to get through before book club tonight. Sam, an MLS student at Portland State, works as her library assistant Mondays, Wednesdays, and every other Friday. Now that Sam has the hang of it, she does a lot of the cataloging instead of Yael, but they’re going to start decorating for Halloween tomorrow, and she has been talking about it for weeks. Yael would hate for her to come in and see the arrivals cart in this state.
Gina comes barreling in ten minutes after the bell for lunch, waving her phone at Yael.
“I usually don’t expect you until last period. You know I take my lunch later than teachers, right?”
Gina completely ignores her. “Is your podcastThe Sophomore English Agenda?!” she asks, the urgency in her whisper enough to give Yael pause.
She hesitates, but from the way Gina is looking at her, it doesn’t seem like she’d be able to lie even if she wanted to. “Yes. Why?”
“It’s number nine in the Books category on Apple Podcasts! And number two hundred overall!”
“Wait, what?” Yael stares at her. “There’s no way. I only cracked the top five hundred with the last episode. And listeners can’t see that.”
Gina spins the phone to her, and there it is: Kevin’s new cover art staring back at her from the last publicly visible slot on the chart. “It came up as a suggestion, and halfway through listening, I was like, wait, this sounds like the podcastYaeldescribed to me, and then I googled the meaning of ‘Koenig,’ and I was like, holy shit.”
“Holy shit,” Yael says, still looking at the phone screen. She refreshes, and now it’s at 187.
“Elle like Yael, ‘Rex’ meaning ‘king.’ Clever.”
“What?” Yael drags her eyes back to Gina’s face, trying to process both what she’s saying and what’s on her phone. “Oh, yeah. I first thought of Elle King, but that’s already a singer.”
“Probably better the further away from your actual name it is,” Gina says.
“I can’t believe this,” Yael says. “I need to email Kevin.”
Gina waggles her eyebrows. “I’ll leave you to your sexy emailing.”
“It’s not like that,” Yael says.
“Sure.” Gina winks. “I need to eat and then fill up thirty cups of water in the next twenty minutes, but wewillbe talking about this tomorrow.”
She leaves, and Yael pulls up the creator accounts for all the streaming apps on her phone, like maybe it’s some glitch only affecting Gina’s phone. But no, the podcast is charting everywhere. After another refresh of each app just to be sure, she finally lets herself email Kevin.
To:Kevin Kissoon
RE:Fahrenheit 451Edited Episode
We hit the Apple Podcast Charts!! As of now, number 3 in the Books category and number 162 overall. I keep pinching myself, but as far as I can tell, it’s real.
To:Elle Rex
RE:Fahrenheit 451Edited Episode
Congratulations. It’s well-deserved.
To:Kevin Kissoon
RE:Fahrenheit 451Edited Episode
It’s because of you. There was nowhere near this level of interest before.
