Page 158 of Plus Size Player

“Everyone, I’d like for you to meet Gabriella Pace.”

“Gabriella Pace,” Jacqueline repeated before her eyes got big. “Your replacement?”

The awkward pause that hung in the air seemed to quiet the whole restaurant, even though no one heard her but us.

“What?” Gabby asked, looking at me and then back at Jacqueline.

“You’re the one they are giving—”

“Jacqueline, that’s enough,” I interrupted. “There’s room for both of us.”

“Barely,” a wrinkled old man commented from the next table.

His slim wife laughed along with him.

Still standing, I stared at them until it became uncomfortable for everybody.

“What are you staring at?” the old man asked.

With my top lip curled in disgust, I gave him a look. “Not much.”

He started stuttering and sputtering with indignation and I held up my hand as I took my seat.

Looking around at my dinner companions, I shook my head. “I’m not about to go back and forth with someone with one credit hour of life left.”

They burst out laughing and the waiter came just in time to quell that situation. Even though I was choosing to move on, Jacqueline’s comments were still stirring within me. Because it seemed that even though I wasn’t in competition with Gabby, we were still being positioned as competition against one another.

It was an odd and uncomfortable realization.

No matter how I framed it or how I approached it, there were going to be folks who pitted us against each other. No matter what I did, people like Jacqueline were always going to frame it as a me versus Gabby situation. And if insisting that it wasn’t a competition wasn’t enough for them to believe it, I didn’t know what else could be done.

But I’m not about to let them see me sweat.

Dinner went on with minimal incidents. The other models mostly peppered Gabby with questions, trying to get to know her while we ate. I tried to stay present in the conversation. But I was tired. I had to be on from the time I walked into the restaurant until I was back in my hotel room. All six of us had rooms on the same floor so the smile plastered on my face wasn’t safe to come off until I’d closed my door.

I exhaled.

Nina: I’m about to take a shower and then get in the bed.

Russ: I wish I got a chance to see you today.

Nina: Because of the dress?

Russ: Because of you. But don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind getting a chance to take you out of that dress.

Nina: It sounds like you want me in nothing but the shoes.

Russ: It sounds like you want me to come down to your room.

I squeezed my thighs together.

Nina: Yes please.

Russ: Let me get rid of Remedy and the rest of them and I’ll be right down. Give me thirty minutes.

Nina: I’ll be ready and waiting.

Thirty minutes later, I was showered, shaved, and moisturized.

---