Hope looked startled. “That’s exactly what Mom used to say to me...”
“Well, Ibelievedyou, Hope. Because you were beautiful. And you had a cute boyfriend. And a good job... And I thought that being fat wouldn’t be so bad if it meant being like you.” Cherry shook her head miserably. “So yeah, the fact that you took the miracle skinny drug just as soon as it was available? It fuckingsucks. It’s like we were all on the same team, and you wanted off that team. You don’t want to be like us. You were lying when you said that we could be fat and happy.”
“I wasn’t lying.” Hope still seemed startled. “That’s not what any of this means.”
“Well, that’s the subtext when the text is‘I’m watching my carbs.’”
“This isn’t—” Hope was crying now, too. More messily than Cherry. (She must have less practice.)“God.”She wiped her eyes. “This isn’t aboutyou. Can’t you see that? It isn’t about Honny. Or Joy. Or Faith. This is aboutme,Cherry. Mybody. Mylife.”
Hope held her hands away from her slim hips, palms out. “I was diabetic... My knees hurt all the time... My blood pressure was high, my cholesterol was high, I was constantly out of breath—and I was gaining more weight every year, no matter what I did or ate. I was infree fall.”
She brought her fingertips up to her temples. “And I know that’s just the story of every woman in our family. I know that’s Grandma. And it’s Mom. But what if it doesn’t have to beme? I have three kids, and I want as many years with them as I can get. I want to meet my grandkids. I want to be able towalk.”
Cherry folded her arms. She shifted her weight back. “I didn’t know you were diabetic.”
“I didn’t tell anyone. I was ashamed.”
“It’s not your fault,” Cherry said softly. “It’s genetic.”
Hope waved a hand like that didn’t matter. She took a few breaths. She wiped her eyes again and looked at Cherry. “I’m still the same person, you know?”
“You are and you aren’t...” Cherry said, still being soft, but not quite relenting. “You walk through the world completely differently now.”
Hope looked like that was the worst thing Cherry had said so far. Her face crumpled. “You sound like Danny.”
Cherry was taken aback.“Danny?”
Hope had already started walking away from her.
Cherry looked back at their mom. She was standing close enough to have heard the whole thing. She looked sad from her head to her feet. “Go,” she said.
Cherry left the cart and rushed after Hope—who had disappeared into the maze of the supermarket. Cherry walked toward the exit, looking down each aisle, then out to the parking lot, toward Hope’s SUV.
Hope was sitting in the front seat, leaning over the wheel with her head in her hands.
Cherry stood for a second outside the car.
Then she opened the passenger door and sat down. Hope didn’t look up. She was taking deep, trembling breaths.
Cherry put her hand on Hope’s arm.
Hope shrugged it off. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she said.
“Okay,” Cherry whispered.
“And I don’t want you to tellanyof this to Honny and Joy and Faith.”
“I won’t,” Cherry promised.
“They’d love that...‘Hope lost weight, and her husband fell out of love with her.’”
“They wouldn’t,” Cherry said.
Hope looked up at her, red-faced and snotty. “That’s not what’s happening—with Danny. It’s not that simple.”
Cherry just nodded. She was crying, too.
“We were already having problems...” Hope said, “before...”
