I chuckle and shake my head, glad I’m just a silhouette.
“I mean, I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’m obviously glad you’re single.”
“Fuck yeah, I am,” she says. “All thanks to your brother.”
There’s no DJ around, but I hear the record scratch all the same.My brother?
“What do you mean by that?” I ask, trying not to raise my voice. What the hell do any of my brothers have to do with Kendra?
“Henry was my lawyer. You didn’t know?”
“Nah,” I frown. “He takes attorney-client privilege pretty seriously. I must’ve missed his name in the articles.”
“Oh, right. Well, thanks to Henry, we settled out of court and I got the apartment on East 9th.”
“Thank you, Henry,” I mutter. Before I can fully process that bombshell, the lights are back on, and we’re moving again.
Kendra looks haunted, still recovering from her attack, and I resign myself to the fact that we’re probably not going to hook up tonight. Even so, there’s an easiness to our conversation, and she snuggles back into me, taking my arm once more as we exit the G train and transfer to the L.
Outside her building, we both pause, looking at each other. Something silent passes between us, and we both grin. This wasn’t a date, but…it was something.
“Thanks for walking me home even though we—”
I wave her off.
“Please. What gentleman would let a beautiful woman walk home alone, especially after what we went through?”
She smirks that dazzling smirk that reveals the dimple in her left cheek and makes her eyes sparkle.
“I didn’t realize you were a gentleman,” she teases, pushing me lightly on the arm, “but I’m glad you are. I know we can’t…you know. At least not tonight.” She averts her eyes. “Just take my number. Next time I go to 787, you can meet me.”
I hand her my phone. Meanwhile, I’m jumping up and down inside.She gave me her number!
“I’ll definitely call you.”
My smile remains long after I watch her enter her building. Long after the elevator doors close on her lingering grin. Long after I float home past tourists with ice cream and kids setting off fireworks in the street. All the way until I close my eyes and dream of her.
Chapter nine
Kendra
“You! The big one on the end!”
I look to my left and right, hoping to God the casting director isn’t barking atme. With eyebrows plucked clean and drawn on with black eyeliner, slathered in foundation she must’ve borrowed from Beetlejuice, and wearing stilettos so high and sharp, they could double as a weapon, this stick figure of a woman looks like Cruella DeVil’s twin.
She taps her toe on the drab linoleum floor of the studio and waits for me to make eye contact. Of course she’s talking about me. When my agent told me about this casting call, I double-checked the designer twice. Theodora Galette is known to have strict weight requirements for her models, which is why she’s never contacted me before. At 217 pounds with quite a bit of junk in the trunk and no discernible thigh gap, I don’t really fit her androgynous, gaunt aesthetic. But Morty had insisted.
Once I walked through the door, however, I noticed I was the only woman above a size four. Everyone else was sporting the expected willowy frame.
I texted Morty right away.
Morty
Hey, Morty. I’m feeling like a bull in a china shop here. Are you sure about this gig?
Morty: Positive. They called to confirm you’d be there twice.
I locked my phone and tried to tune everyone else out, but Morty’s text kept needling me. They called twice to confirm, yet I’m the only big girl here? If I weren’t almost positive they brought me in as some sort of token fat woman, I might be flattered.
