ISABELLA
The sliding glass doors of the building sighed as they parted for me, releasing me into the blinding light of the morning.
I blinked hard, as if the sun itself had something personal against me. It probably did. Wouldn’t be the first thing this city conspired to throw at me.
I made my way toward the street, one step at a time. My shoulders were squared, and my chin high.
Fake it till you make it, right? Only in this case, I wasn’t sure what I was faking anymore. Confidence? Indifference? Humanity?
I adjusted the strap of my bag where it dug into the bone of my shoulder, the leather stiff and unrelenting, just like me or so I liked to think.
And then I saw her.
Marcia, tall, and impossibly tall. Her figure was draped in a skin-tight lilac dress that screamed money and whispe
