the Only One

The Only One is the name for Nella Rogers’s experience of being the sole Black woman in the Wagner Books office—and for the relief, hope, and unease that follow when that isolation ends. The phrase first marks a workplace fact with personal consequences: Nella has no colleague who can immediately understand the strain of encountering racially insensitive material. Hazel-May McCall’s arrival changes the head count, but it does not instantly resolve the loneliness or suspicion attached to being the only one.

Meaning and Workplace Isolation

For Nella, being the Only One is not simply a matter of being visibly different on the floor. It means doing her job without a nearby colleague who shares the perspective needed to process its racial dimensions. She can build friendly relationships with other assistants and be known by people of color working at the front desk and in the mailroom, yet still lack the particular intimacy of a work confidante: someone she can turn to after encountering a racially insensitive fictional character, unload her feelings, and then return to her desk feeling steadier.

That distinction becomes clear in the history of Wagner Books’ Diversity Town Halls. Attendance dwindles from one meeting to the next until the fourth consists only of Nella and a publicity assistant. When the assistant suggests offering donuts to attract more people, Nella tears up the think piece she had prepared and leaves. She later feels heat in her cheeks remembering the public show of frustration. Her reaction reflects not indifference to the subject but the wear of repeatedly confronting it without a roomful of colleagues willing to stay engaged. The Only One describes both a demographic position and the unequal burden of trying to make that position legible to others.

From Anticipation to Company

Nella first glimpses the possibility of no longer being the Only One when Maisy Glendower leads an interviewee past her cube. Through a crack in the partition, Nella sees dark locs and a brown hand and realizes that another Black person is interviewing at Wagner Books. She imagines the candidate sitting in the cube across from hers, sharing the office air and helping her fend off the Sophies of the workplace. Instead of celebrating aloud, Nella mentally plans to text Malaika with the news.

The possibility becomes a source of delight outside the office. Nella tells Malaika that the new colleague is from Harlem and has long, ombré locs. Malaika raises her glass to no longer being the Only One; Nella clinks her nearly empty beer against it and finishes the last sips. Around them, women in business-casual clothes occupy the high barstools in pairs, laughing and sharing post-work frustrations. The scene gives the phrase a social counterimage: rather than sitting alone with an experience no one nearby understands, Nella can imagine a colleague and feel a passing solidarity with the women gathered around her.

Relief and Its Limits

The arrival of Hazel-May McCall gives Nella the possibility she had pictured, but the change is not a simple cure for isolation. Having another Black woman at Wagner Books matters because Nella has wanted someone who might understand the emotional residue of work without requiring her to explain why it matters. Yet the earlier town-hall episode shows that representation by itself does not guarantee collective attention or change the office’s habits. One colleague can alter Nella’s immediate sense of aloneness; that presence does not ensure that the wider workplace will take racial concerns seriously.

The phrase also carries the pressure of Nella’s professional position. She is already anxious about challenging Colin Franklin over his treatment of Shartricia, especially after the two had made some progress in their author-assistant relationship. The prospect of addressing the book sits alongside her accumulated experience of being the person who has to register and articulate what others miss. The Only One is therefore not only a description of who occupies the office; it helps explain why even a specific editorial disagreement can feel connected to a much larger burden.

The Phrase Under Suspicion

After Nella receives an anonymous warning, Malaika invokes the fact that Nella is Black and asks how many white Wagner employees have received a note like it. She then recalls that Nella is no longer the only one and tries to remember Hazel-May McCall’s name. The reminder turns the phrase into one detail in Malaika’s reasoning about the threat: Hazel’s presence makes her a possible recipient too, and raises the question of whether she might have left the note.

Nella resists that suspicion. She points to Hazel-May McCall’s friendly message that day and to the subtlety of the alleged warning, reasoning that a person who wanted her gone would not have behaved that way. She also acknowledges how closely she and Hazel seem to reflect one another, like two sides of the same coin, and recalls the work she has done over two years to prepare her white colleagues not to say ignorant things in meetings. Malaika ultimately agrees that Hazel is unlikely to have planted the letter. Still, the possibility stays with Nella, growing harder to dismiss as she drinks. The expression’s hopeful meaning thus acquires an uneasy edge: a new colleague can represent solidarity while also becoming entangled in the anxieties that define Nella’s workplace.

Significance

The Only One compresses a changing condition into a phrase that can express both deprivation and relief. Before Hazel-May McCall’s arrival, it names Nella’s lack of a close peer who understands the pressures of the office from a similar position. At the toast, it marks a welcome change and the chance of companionship. In the aftermath of the warning, it becomes part of Nella and Malaika’s attempt to interpret danger and trust. Its meaning shifts with the scene, but the underlying issue remains: a second Black woman can make Nella less alone without making the institution’s racial pressures disappear.