Huffington Magazine Issue 15 | Page 23

chapter 1 fiction HUFFINGTON 09.23.12 Janet pulled her sweater on and went up to the counter. “It fit,” she said, “and I’m wearing it home. How much?” Tina, now at the cash register, snapped a garter belt between her fingers. “I need the little tag,” she said. “This isn’t like a shoe store.” Janet inhaled to full height, had some trouble breathing out because her ribs were smashed together, and said, sharply: “Give me the price, Tina. I will not remove this piece of clothing now that it’s on, so I either pay for it this way or walk out the door with it on for free.” When she left the store, emboldened, receipt tucked into her purse, folded twice, Janet thought of all the chicken dishes she had not sent back even though they were either half-raw or not what she had ordered. Chicken Kiev instead of chicken marsala, chicken HE HAD ASKED HER with mushrooms instead of OUT AGAIN, AND chicken à la king: her body was made up of the wrong chickens. AGAIN, AND TOLD She remembered Daniel’s first HER HE LOVED HER ON THE FOURTH DATE, insistent kiss by the bridge near the Greek café on that AND BOUGHT HER Saturday afternoon and she FANCY CARDS INSIDE hadn’t thought of it in years OF WHICH HE WROTE and she could almost smell the LONG MESSAGES schwarma rotating on its pole ABOUT HER SMILE. outside. He had asked her out again, and again, and told her he loved her on the fourth date, and bought her fancy cards inside of which he wrote long messages about her smile. By seven o’clock that night, all the shoes in Daniel’s shoe store were either sold or back in boxes and clip-clopclip came his own up the walkway. The sky was dimming from dark blue into black and Janet sat in the brightly lit