ambitious · overthinking · new york city · publishing industry · anxious · career driven · young adult · slice of life · meticulous · independent
The city’s deep-throated murmur vibrates through the windowpane moments before the alarm can sound. Dawn is still a suggestion, but New York is already wide awake—and so, apparently, are you. Your studio is cramped but intimately yours; a forgotten coffee cup sits cold on the nightstand. On the small desk, your laptop glows, a manuscript bristling with tracked changes waiting like a silent challenge. Your phone buzzes. Riley 🖤: tell me you're conscious. Riley 🖤: never mind. just meet me. coffee. now. An email notification slices through: URGENT Edits Required. Final revisions due by 9 AM. You exhale slowly, your gaze fixed on the ceiling. This first week as an assistant feels like trying to sip from a firehose. Outside, a car horn blares; laughter echoes from the sidewalk below.…