Nella Rogers—Hazel-May McCall

Nella Rogers and Hazel-May McCall’s relationship at Wagner Books develops from a tentative colleague-to-colleague rapport into a rivalry over recognition and advancement. Hazel sometimes turns to Nella for practical guidance, but Nella increasingly reads Hazel’s actions through the unsettled aftermath of Nella’s conflict with Colin Franklin and the possibility that Hazel is gaining ground where Nella has been waiting. Their competition is not simply personal: it unfolds in an office where Nella has spent more than a year navigating racialized assumptions and limited prospects, while Hazel’s rapid rise makes Nella feel newly replaceable.

Early Rapport and Uneasy Trust

Nella’s wariness predates Hazel’s arrival. Before starting at Wagner, Nella worried that an office job in Manhattan would mean rigid hierarchy and homogeneity, and wondered whether she and her future boss, Vera Parini, would have any chemistry. She had come from jobs behind bars and coffee counters, where she met people from many occupations and could dress as she liked. Those expectations help frame her later attentiveness to workplace relationships: belonging and professional safety are not matters she can take for granted.

Hazel’s early approach to Nella is, at least in part, one of genuine reliance. She asks Nella for help with a manuscript she has been assigned to review, admitting that she is worried about getting the editorial comments wrong. Nella responds reassuringly. But the exchange also exposes a difference in their positions: Hazel’s request gives Nella a chance to act as the experienced colleague, while Hazel’s assignment itself puts her in view as someone trusted with editorial work.

The help does not settle Nella’s doubts. When she learns that Vera sends Hazel her authors’ work, Nella wonders whether Vera is still holding a grudge against her over the Colin incident and has therefore kept a manuscript from her. She allows that the grudge might be unconscious, but the possibility changes how she interprets Hazel’s access. Hazel’s opportunities can look, from Nella’s perspective, like evidence of a decision being made about Nella’s own future.

The Colin Conflict and Its Aftermath

The conflict over Colin’s portrayal of a Black woman leaves Nella exposed in a workplace where colleagues may treat her as an exception rather than recognize the racial dimensions of her experience. After Nella raises concerns about the character, Colin reacts defensively, making the exchange increasingly public and loud. Nella apologizes, but the apology does not resolve the situation for her: she has neither received the understanding she hoped for nor escaped the professional consequences she fears.

In the aftermath, Nella watches Hazel’s movements around Vera’s office. She considers asking Vera about a project, then sees Hazel heading directly to Vera with a notepad and determined posture. Nella expects some sign of apology or explanation from Hazel, but the available scene establishes the moment of anticipation rather than what Hazel says or intends. Its importance lies in Nella’s changed attention: Hazel’s approach to their boss now becomes something Nella reads for clues about their relative standing.

For the next few days, Nella keeps her head down and her mouth shut while monitoring activity at work. She records the time and substance of interactions with colleagues, and includes her own exchanges with Hazel as well as Hazel’s conversations with Vera. Hazel is not exempt from this scrutiny. Nella’s note-taking follows her accidental eavesdropping on Richard Wagner, and her suspicion intensifies when Hazel spends about sixty-eight minutes in Vera’s office discussing The Lie. Nella eats the entire emergency bag of pretzels she had meant to ration for the month while waiting for the meeting to end. The small depletion gives her anxiety a concrete measure: even an ordinary conversation behind a closed door can become, to Nella, a possible verdict on her job.

Visibility, Recognition, and Diverging Paths

At a meeting about Colin’s book, Hazel speaks publicly about its Black protagonist and the way the story might resonate with audiences of color, including people affected by addiction. When she acknowledges that some readers may criticize aspects of the character, her gaze is pointed enough that Nella notices it, as does a production editor seated in front of her. Hazel then praises Colin’s overall work. In the wake of Nella’s painful exchange with Colin, Hazel’s intervention places her in the discussion Nella had tried to enter, but does not provide the straightforward solidarity Nella might have wanted. The moment leaves Nella visible in the room chiefly as the person whose response others seem to watch.

Hazel’s public influence grows beyond that discussion. At a later event, she announces that Richard will reconsider hiring criteria through a more holistic approach and review the demographics of books Wagner has acquired over the preceding decade. She presents the commitments as an important change for a predominantly white publisher and as a beginning that might affect other houses. Nella has spent time accepting colleagues’ explanations and choosing her battles in the hope of making work easier and eventually earning a promotion. Seeing Hazel move quickly to challenge the status quo, Nella feels not simply outpaced but redundant. She recognizes that Hazel has helped open a door for other people of color at Wagner, yet that achievement does not relieve Nella’s fear that there may be less room for her.

The competition becomes explicit when Richard offers Nella a role on a project involving Jesse Watson. Nella immediately imagines the opportunity as a promotion to assistant editor and accepts with visible enthusiasm. Richard then says Hazel should have an opportunity too, since she introduced them to Jesse. Nella’s smile disappears; she thinks of the initiative she took in emailing Jesse and of how long she has wanted such a chance. She briefly imagines throwing a chair, then suppresses the thought, conscious of having recently lost control in another workplace conflict.

An Unresolved Rivalry

The evidence presents neither a settled friendship nor an open break between Nella and Hazel. Their connection holds cooperation alongside suspicion: Hazel asks Nella for editorial help, while Nella wonders whether Hazel’s access to Vera signals a grudge against her or a shift in the office’s priorities. Nella’s surveillance of Hazel and her reaction to Hazel’s public prominence show how little reassurance their working relationship provides once Nella feels professionally vulnerable.

Their rivalry also turns on recognition. Hazel’s visible initiatives promise structural change at Wagner, but Nella experiences the same rise as a personal loss of space, especially after years of waiting for advancement. Richard’s decision to include both women in the Jesse Watson opportunity offers neither an uncomplicated victory nor a resolution; it makes their competition tangible while leaving the terms of their shared opportunity unsettled. The relationship therefore registers the cost of advancement in a workplace where the prospect of opening doors for more people can coexist with the fear that one colleague’s progress will make another’s labor and ambitions easier to overlook.