“What the actual fuck,” Russ said. “Ignore them, Cherry. They’re drunk and bad at their jobs.”
“Or like...” the high one said, “...Lois Lane.”
“What’s it like to be aconcept?” the first one asked Cherry. “You’re immortal. You’re one of the faces on Mount Rushmore.”
Chapter 38
Therewasa meme.
There were several memes.
Most people who saw them probably didn’t even know where they came from.
Sometimes they were about fat women... Like, somebody would take a panel of Baby and stretch it wide, and the line would be,When the bio says she got curves.
The most popular memes were just silly. There was one with Baby frowning and holding up a sign. You could change the sign to say anything you wanted to complain about. Like,I was told there would be cake.Or,The Spurs are overrated.(For some reason, it was used a lot by NBA fans.)
“Who cares about memes?”Stacia had texted Cherry, after Cherry sent her yet another new and terrible Baby meme.“Memes are ephemeral. I can’t understand half the stuff I posted on Facebook ten years ago.”
Cherry took the NBA meme and typed,The internet is foreveron Baby’s sign. She sent it to Stacia.
Stacia changed the sign to say,My ex-husband made me into a cartoon, and all I got was a million dollars and this chip on my shoulder.
Chapter 39
Russ drank too much at the Christmas party to drive home.
He probably wasn’tproperlydrunk. Cherry wasn’t a good judge of drunkenness because she never drank, and she was never around inebriated people anymore—except for her dad, who drank so much, heneverseemed drunk. It was easier to tell when her dad was sober. He snapped at everyone.
Cherry drove them home in Russ’s car. It was a Polestar. Electric. She’d never even heard of that car before she met him. Cherry’s heels were too high to drive. She had to take off her right shoe to feel the pedal.
Russ was uncharacteristically quiet on the way to his house.
Maybe he got quiet these days when he drank. There was still that tension from earlier in the night around his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Cherry said softly.
He looked over at her. “What? Why areyousorry?I’msorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, Russ. I had a nice time.”
He laughed, bitterly.
“There were a few awkward moments,” she said, “but everyone was nice.”
Russ shook his head. “Was thatnormalfor you?”
“It was on the intense end of normal...” She shook her head, too. “This movie’s changed everything. I’m kind of just waiting for people to forget about it.”
“That could be a long wait. Isn’t there a sequel coming?”
Cherry’s heart caught in her chest. “What?Is there a sequel? Is that confirmed?”
Russ looked startled. “I don’t know—Molly said there was a whole series.”
“Oh,” Cherry said. “Well, it’s a series of books. I don’t know if there’ll be a movie sequel. I guess I should want that, from a financial standpoint.”
“Do you get money from all this?”
