Cherry nodded again.
“We were arguing constantly and constantly frustrated with each other. And there were...” Hope looked at her lap. (She had a hell of a lap now.) “... other things, too. You get older, and you hardly recognize each other. You hardly recognize yourself.”
Cherry wasreallycrying. She kind of hoped Hope wouldn’t notice.
“I didn’t talk to him about the Mounjaro,” Hope said. “That was a mistake. I own that. And then... I wasn’t really prepared for how upside down it would make me feel to lose weight. Like a stranger in my own body...” She glanced over at Cherry. “Good. But foreign.” She shook her head. “Ashamed. Not always good, actually...” She grabbed a used Starbucks napkin from the cupholder and blew her nose. “And Danny... well.” She looked down again. “There are other things, too.”
“I’m sorry,” Cherry whispered.
Hope looked up at her, intently this time, into Cherry’s eyes. (Hope’s brown eyes were so big now. Unencumbered by her cheeks.) “I’d like to say that I’m sorry, too... but I’m still not convinced that it wouldn’t have made things worse if I’d been honest with you.” She let out a loud breath and rolled her eyes at herself. “Which is also what I said to Danny.”
“I didn’t know you were having such a hard time,” Cherry said. “With your health.”
Hope shook her head, agitated. “Oh, it wasn’t just my health. It’s not like I did this”—she gestured at her stomach—“for whollynoblereasons. I was tired of being fat, Cherry. I’ve had forty years of it, and I’mtired. I’m sorry if that disappoints you. Maybe I’mnotthe same person.”
“Maybe not...” Cherry said. “But you’re still my sister.”
Hope looked up at her.
Cherry reached for her hand and took it.
Hope didn’t shake her off this time. She started crying again. “I’m such a mess, Cherry.”
Cherry squeezed her hand. “I can tell.”
Hope laughed. She lifted up her other arm and hid her face in her elbow. “Oh my god... I’m such amess.”
Cherry moved sideways in the seat, turning toward Hope. (The SUV was soroomy.)
Hope let her arm drop to her lap. “Danny and I are... I don’t know what we are. He’s been sleeping on the couch.”
“Have the kids noticed?”
“They think it’s because he snores. Hedoessnore, but I’ve never cared. He’s staying at the firehouse sometimes.”
“Are you talking to anyone about it?”
She made a face at Cherry. “You mean, like a marriage counselor?”
“Yeah.”
“No. That would make it real. Did you and Tom see a counselor?”
“No.” Cherry shook her head. “He was in L.A., and I was... done, I guess.”
“Yeah, you seemed sodoneat Christmas...”
Cherry sat back. “We’re not talking about me.”
“Weshouldbe,” Hope said. “I don’t know what’s going on with you. I assume it’sinsane...You brought a boyfriend to Thanksgiving and your estranged husband to Christmas.”
“Oh god.” Cherry pulled her hand away to cover her face. “It’s... yeah. Not sane.”
“Tell me about it.”
Cherry laughed.
“No,” Hope said, “I’m serious—tell me about it.”
