Nico's

Nico’s is an independent, inexpensive café where Nella Rogers can claim a lunch space of her own, and on August 21, 2018, that modest refuge becomes the setting for a candid conversation with Hazel-May McCall about a troubling portrayal of a woman of color in Needles and Pins. The café’s contrast with the office matters: away from the cube that is everyone’s battleground, Nella can lay out her doubts and receive Hazel’s outside perspective.

Setting and Use

Nico’s is described as a hole-in-the-wall café serving food of Au Bon Pain quality with the ambiance of Pret A Manger. It is not particularly nice, but its low prices make it a place Nella often chooses. Its relative informality also keeps it apart from the rituals of publishing business: higher-ups who come in take their food to go, while agents and authors are not brought there because entertaining clients calls for waitstaff. That pattern gives Nella a lunch spot that feels like her own, unlike her office cube, which is as much everyone else’s battleground as hers.

The café’s value for Nella is therefore not a matter of prestige or comfort. It offers a practical pocket of separation within a workplace where even a desk is contested. The worn Wagner Books tote she brings with her makes the office present at the table, but the café allows her to step outside its immediate pressures long enough to speak openly.

The August 21 Lunch

Hazel finishes paying first and chooses a table beside a large window, where sunlight falls across the café and the view opens onto busy Seventh Avenue. Nella joins her with a sandwich and juice, putting her wallet into her worn-out Wagner Books tote. Hazel asks whether sitting in the sunlight is all right; Nella agrees and mentions the benefit of vitamin D. The small exchange establishes a relaxed setting before the conversation turns to work.

Hazel says she is not sure she wants to be a book editor and is still feeling the job out. Nella remains unconvinced and asks her to keep what follows between them. Hazel answers that they need to stick together and suggests that her outside perspective might help. In response, Nella tells her everything she has been turning over about Shartricia in Needles and Pins: her disgust and reservations, and her uncertainty about whether she is overreacting. By the time Nella finishes, Hazel has eaten her lunch while Nella still has most of her sandwich; Nella explains that talking about the issue only makes her more frustrated.

Advice and Significance

Hazel validates Nella’s reaction by recalling that she found Colin Franklin’s novel Illegally Yours problematic in its portrayal of a Mexican woman. The example gives Hazel a point of comparison for Nella’s concerns about Shartricia, rather than treating those concerns as an unreasonable personal response. Nico’s thus becomes a place where Nella can test her judgment with someone who recognizes how a troubling portrayal can affect a reader.

Before they leave, Hazel advises Nella to speak to Vera Parini whether or not Vera is receptive. She argues that Vera should have the chance to fix the problem, rather than allowing a person of color to notice it and say nothing. Hazel invokes the backlash against the Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial as a warning about what can happen when people involved in a campaign fail to speak up. Nella remembers discussing that advertisement with Malaika and considering whether Black people involved in its production had recognized what was wrong. The exchange shifts the lunch from private reassurance toward a decision about responsibility: the café provides room for Nella to voice her doubts, while Hazel presses her to act on them.