Hey, Isabelle, Happy New Year! I keep leaving voicemail. What ARE you doing?

XO K

Happy New Year, BFF! What am I doing? Taking my final semester at Smith, getting ready to move to the Berkshires for two years where I’ll write the great American novel, and spending every spare moment with Gorgeous Gordon! We’ll talk soon!

XO I

Forgive me for doing it this way, Isabelle, but I haven’t been able to get you on the phone…Isabelle, I’m, um, seeing Tommy. I mean sleeping with him, hanging out with him, the whole deal. I think it’s fine because you’re over Tommy and totally in love with Gorgeous Gordon. Right?

I know you’re graduating in a month. Your mother told me they’re going up for the big celebration. And then you go to the writers’ colony immediately? No stop home?

XO K

Wow, you and Tommy. Really? You know he hit on you to get back at me, don’t you? Tommy and I were together for a long time. He’s having sex with you because he knows it would hurt me. You’d better get away from that guy before you get hurt.

Wow, Isabelle, that so wasn’t what I was expecting you to say. I mean, you’re “spending every spare moment with Gorgeous Gordon!” So you want Gordon but you still want Tommy?

Keely, don’t do this. You know I’ve loved Tommy all my life. Just because I’m seeing someone else doesn’t mean I don’t care about him. And about you. I think you’re both heading for a big crash. You know he’s just using you.

Could we not talk about men for once? I want to know how you’re doing at the colony. Are you writing like a mad thing? Learning some cool advice?

Are you coming to the island at all this summer? Let me know. I’m working every job I can get and I want to clear some time to be with you. Mom’s doing great. She loves cooking. Can you plan to come over for dinner when you’re on the island? Bring Gordon!

XO K

Hi, Keely, sorry I haven’t been in touch for a while. I’ve been so crazy busy here at the writers’ colony, and when I get a chance, I zip down to the city to spend some time with Gordon. He’s been really patient about me being isolated here like some kind of nun. But I’ve met some cool people—and some odd ones—who are trying to write their first novel, too, and we get all our meals in the dining hall, so I don’t have to cook and can focus on my work.

Are you still with Tommy? If you are, don’t get your hopes up that it will last. Tommy doesn’t know how to commit.

XO I

Isabelle! Aren’t you coming home this summer at all?

XO K

Keely, don’t you love this photo? It’s me, standing in front of John Keats’s house in London. Gordon and I flew over for a couple of weeks in August so I could take a break from the writing workshop. It gets so intense. Are you and Tommy still together? I hope not.

XO I

Hi, Isabelle, for someone in London with Gordon, you’re awfully curious about Tommy. Yes, we are together. And we don’t talk about you at all. I mean, you’re almost engaged to Gorgeous Gordon.

Are you coming home for Christmas and New Years?

XO K

Sorry, no, Gordon and I are going to Paris for Christmas. If you’re with Tommy, don’t buy him anything too sentimental. It would be a waste of your money. And don’t expect anything like jewelry from him. He’s clueless.

XO I

Hi Isabelle, are you coming to the island for a visit this summer? I miss you!

XO K

Oh, Keely, I’m sorry, I lost your last email, I mean I didn’t really read it, I get so many. Something about spring makes me want to write all the time, and I think I’ve got a brilliant novel going. Gordon is so patient and kind. Are you getting any writing done or are you too busy trying to keep Tommy happy? He can be moody. No one knows that more than I do.

XO I

Hi, Isabelle, I got a lot of writing done over the winter because I didn’t have much work with Clean Sweep. Now everyone’s coming back so I’m working again. It’s fine, I think. It will give me time to let my novel “cool.”

Isabelle, you’ve got to stop with this Tommy business. You act like you own him, like you have him fenced in. I just don’t get it. What do you want?

XO K

Hi, Keely, I suppose we should talk on the phone sometime but we’d both start yelling at each other. You’re my best friend, so I don’t understand how you cannot get that Tommy was my first love. We were precious to each other. Feelings like that don’t just evaporate. Why can’t you date someone else? Don’t you see it wouldn’t hurt me as much if Tommy saw someone else?

So tired of trying to explain.

Hi, Isabelle, I can’t believe you were here last week with Gordon and you didn’t even call me! I would have loved to meet him. Your mother said you two came for only a couple days, and Gordon asked your father for permission to marry you. Your mother said you have a ring the size of an ostrich egg.

Why didn’t you call me? Didn’t you want to see me?

K

Keely, I’m sorry sorry sorry, please don’t be mad at me. I’m balancing so many balls in the air! Gordon’s parents are very demanding. I haven’t been able to write for weeks. He wants me to leave the BWC, but I want to finish out this year. I’m so close to finishing this novel, but I’ve shared some of it with Gordon and he got so upset about the sex scenes. His parents would probably never speak to me again if I published a book that had these sex scenes. But they’re not perverted or weird, they’re about love, and I don’t know what to do. My advisor here tells me to leave them in, they’re good, they’re important, but I don’t want to make Gordon’s parents mad.

I’m so worried and unhappy! DON’T sign your emails without the XO! I need as many XOs from you as I can get. I know I’ve been a crap correspondent for the past two years, but everything has been so extreme. I’ll phone you sometime. Will you talk to me?

XOXOXO I

Isabelle, of course I’ll talk to you. You need to rethink this relationship with Gorgeous Gordon. He seems controlling. And puritanical. I do love you and worry about you. And I have missed you so much!

XO K

ISABELLE! I have a literary agent! I sent my novel to Sally Hazlitt at Hazlitt and Hopkins in NYC, and Sally called me! She loves my book! She’s sending me a contract to sign! After her phone call I screamed so loud my mother thought I’d hurt myself! I hugged her so hard I picked her up off the floor! I’m so wired I could run to ’Sconset and back without stopping.

I’ve tried to call you but you never pick up so I’m sending this text.

I wish you were here, Izzy, we could pop a bottle of champagne and drink it at Surfside and dance in the waves. No one but you really understands. I have an agent! Miracles do happen! My book probably won’t get published—but I have an agent so maybe it will! Could you come home for a few days? Or maybe I should drive out to the Berkshires and take you out to dinner to celebrate. This is the best day of my life!

XOXOXO K

Sorry I couldn’t answer sooner. It was Gordon’s mother’s birthday. (She makes Queen Elizabeth look like Lady Gaga.) How exciting that you have an agent. Congratulations. Did you tell Tommy? What does he think? I’ll call soon.

XO I

Isabelle, no one understands the importance of getting an agent but you. I told Tommy. He’s more excited about the size of the striped bass he caught last week.

I took Mom out to dinner to celebrate, but she doesn’t really get it, either. I’m just cleaning houses and babysitting and keeping my fingers crossed.

XO K