Dan: welcome to the cesspool we like to call “Twitter”
Katya: thanks. I’ve been here before, it’s always a pleasure.
Katya: jk. duh.
Dan: smoke?
Katya: yeah sure
Dan: actually…i’ll come by your desk in a sec
Ever since the other night, when she told him she couldn’t meet up, he hadn’t asked her to hang out after work again, and she was hoping they had reached a cautious equilibrium, one that tacitly acknowledged that something had happened between them but that there was really no need, at all, to talk about it or think about it or reference it ever again, and they could just go back to being normal, or at least normal-ish.
She was still looking at her TweetDeck when she felt a presence behind her. She turned around. It was Dan. He had his hand behind his back. “Hey,” she said. “Are we going to smoke?”
He took his hand out from behind his back and produced a small bouquet of daisies. “Ta-da!” he said. “I just got you these because, well, you’re kicking ass.”
So much for cautious equilibrium. Against her will, Katya felt herself blushing. Victor had gotten her flowers once, and she had laughed and told him that she wasn’t really the type for flowers and he should save his money, and he had gotten offended and pouted a little bit, so finally she’d found a pint glass from Social Media Week—it must have been Janelle’s—in the kitchen cabinet and put them in water in there, and then by the time she remembered to check on them, they were dead. But she meant it—what did she need with flowers? They were just a reminder of mortality, the way that they were vibrant and beautiful one day and withered and dry the next, not to mention a waste of money.
She couldn’t say that to Dan. Even after everything, he was her boss. And he meant well. So she smiled and said, “Wow, thank you, that’s very nice, I guess I should find something to put them in, right?”
“They’re just from the bodega down the block,” he said, a little too quickly. “I think there might be a vase in the kitchen—I’ll get it.”
“Well, thanks,” she said. Dan nodded, smiled, and walked toward the kitchen.
“Flowers, huh?” She now realized Kevin had watched their entire exchange and was smirking.
“Yeah,” she said. “For the Mack story.”
“Mm-hmm.” Kevin grinned. “Dan Blum has never gotten anyone else in this newsroom flowers. Lit-er-ally never. Even when Christina broke that story about Uber.” Christina’s Uber story had been one of the biggest scoops of the year; she had even gone on CNN to talk about it.
“Well, he really wanted me to do this story.” Not that it’s any of your business, she added silently. She started typing an email, hoping Kevin would take the hint and stop talking to her.
He didn’t. “How did you get the story, anyway?”
“You know I can’t tell you my sources,” Katya said.
“Whoa-whoa-whooooooa,” Kevin said, throwing up his hands in mock surrender. “No one’s asking you for your sources. Chill.”
Katya rolled her eyes. “Chill,” she mimicked. “Do you know how much I hate that word? It’s just so…ugh.” She shook her head.
“Damn, you have been cranky lately,” he said. “It’s really not that bad, you know.”
She rolled her eyes. “Okay, whatever you say,” she said. “Actually, I’m really busy. Do you mind?” She gestured to her computer.
“Yeah, you know what, so am I,” Kevin said as Dan returned from the kitchen with a mason jar filled with water.
“Thanks,” Katya said. She put the flowers in the jar.
“Still want that smoke?” Dan said. Katya nodded. She did want a smoke, even if she now felt a little awkward having it with Dan.
“Gimme a sec—I’ll meet you downstairs,” she said. At least she’d be able to avoid having people see them walk out together. When she got outside, he had already lit a cigarette. “So? How you feeling?” he said. He squeezed her shoulders. “You just fucking killed it. We were just ready to go with that story. Deanna and Rich have both told me how great you did.”
“Yeah, they emailed me too,” she said. She lit a cigarette and took a long drag, and allowed herself a small smile. “The whole thing feels pretty good.”
“It’s amazing,” Dan said. “Really, really amazing.” They were silent for a moment. “What’s the day-two story here?”
“Hmm,” Katya said. “Not totally sure yet. I feel like I need to see how things sort of shake out, you know?”
“Yeah,” Dan said. “But let’s not wait too long. There are going to be other outlets on this, and we don’t want to let the story get away from us.”
“Right, right,” Katya said. “I was also thinking, maybe it’d be a good time to pick up the invisibletechman story. Feels like the moment is right for it, you know?”
Dan nodded. “Yeah.” He took a long drag of his cigarette. “Listen…before you do, there’s something I should tell you.”
“Okay,” Katya said. “I’m listening.”
“Actually…I’ll just show you.” He took out his phone and swiped and tapped on it a few times and finally turned to show her. It was the @invisibletechman account in the Twitter app.
“What about it?”
Dan looked at her meaningfully. “Watch,” he said. He held the phone so she could see as he clicked on the little feather icon in the app. The “What’s Happening?” screen, with @invisibletechman’s avatar in the corner, popped up. Then he typed: Can’t believe the news about @mackmcallister…oh wait, yes I can. He added? and hit the bright blue tweet button. “Voilà.”