“Baby!” the reporter shouted. She was all eyes and teeth. “We’re so excited to meet you! We all want to know—what’s it like seeing yourself on screen?”
Tom leaned in before Cherry could answer. He reached out and pulled the microphone his way.
“Baby is a fictional character,” he said, frowning. “She’s two-dimensional—she’s a shadow on a cave wall. My wife is infinite. If there are things you like about Baby, I probably stole them from her. But I could never fit everything she is, and everything she means to me, into a panel.”
Chapter 73
Cherry had shown up at his hotel.
Tom wasn’t there. It was awkward. She sat in the lobby on a velvet sofa, with her suitcase and the coat she wouldn’t need for a week, not wanting to just text him and tell him she was there.
She’d taken the week off work.
She’d boarded Stevie.
She’d known that she was stepping into something she wasn’t ready for. Into light that might blind her.
Cherry saw Tom before he saw her. Walking in from the street. His shoulders were hunched. He was with another woman—probably Michelle.
Cherry stood up. She was wearing tight jeans and very cute yellow patent leather heels. (She’d worn heels on the airplane. She was in agony.)
Tom stopped.
He stood taller.
“Baby...” he said. She could read his lips.
Cherry nodded.
