Page 19

Jude

Kat did not seem particularly impressed by Jude’s brilliant idea.

“Your idea is…Old Navy?” she said, shading her eyes to look up at the store in front of her.

“Yup,” Jude said cheerfully. “There’s a Uniqlo near here, too. We can go there next.”

Kat’s eyes darted to the sign in the window offering fourteen-dollar jeans. “Look, Jude,” she said, as if choosing her words very carefully. “I really appreciate the help but I’m not sure those stores convey the exact…glamorous vibe that I’m going for.”

Jude grinned. “That’s the whole point,” she said. “In those high-end stores, everything is so stylized. There’s no room to figure out what your new look is going to be, because someone else’s vision has already informed all of those clothes.”

Kat hesitated.

“You don’t have to even buy anything,” Jude said. “Think of it more as an exercise in starting to figure out what you like. They have so many different options in this store, you can consider a bunch of styles at once.”

Kat pursed her lips as if she was considering it. “I don’t know,” she said finally. “It looks crowded.”

“If anyone recognizes you, they’ll just be really excited that you’re shopping at the same place as them,” Jude said gently. “You’ll probably get a spread in People magazine: ‘Katrina Kelly—She’s Just Like Us!’?”

Kat lifted her hand to her sunglasses, nudging them farther up her face. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

The inside of the store was enormous. Kat hesitated for a second before heading for the nearest display of women’s clothes. Jude followed. Kat flicked through a couple of racks without enthusiasm, biting her lip. Then she turned to Jude. “I don’t really know where to start.”

“Well, what kind of clothes do you like?”

“I don’t know.” Kat ducked her chin, the way she always seemed to when she thought her face might give away some emotion. “Usually, a stylist tells me what to wear.”

“So why did you decide not to hire a stylist now?”

“Because my parents burned through my salary when I was a kid, and now I’m running out of money faster than a Marvel movie runs over budget.” She said it like a joke, but there was bitterness under her airy tone. Jude decided not to push.

“Well, maybe just browse around. Try to figure out what you like.”

Kat flicked through a few more racks, then said, helplessly, “But how do you know when you like something?”

Jude frowned at her, confused. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, people always say you should trust your gut. But what does your gut feel like? What if mine is broken?”

“Hmm.” Jude leaned against a shelf full of sweaters. “I don’t think your gut is broken. But maybe you never listen to it, so it’s gotten quieter and quieter over time. Maybe you just need to practice paying attention to it.”

Kat looked up at Jude, her eyes big and shining. “How?”

“Well.” Jude considered the issue for a few seconds.

“I think you have to just pick something. Anything. Look around, see what catches your eye, and try it on. If you feel good when wearing it, then that’s a good sign.

” She put her hand lightly on Kat’s shoulder and steered her over to the shirts section. “Here. Just pick a shirt.”

Kat looked skeptically at the three-for-one-special sign. “What if I pick a really ugly shirt?”

“That’s okay. That’s great, actually. Wearing ugly clothes is part of figuring out your style. If you’re too worried about picking clothes that other people think look good, you’ll never figure out what you actually like. So go ahead. Pick a shirt, any shirt. The uglier the better.”

Kat rolled her eyes, but her mouth turned up a little at the corner.

She flicked through the shirts, glancing at each of them and then dismissing them one by one, for long enough that Jude started to worry she’d given bad advice.

But then Kat paused for a moment, staring at one shirt longer than the others.

After a few seconds, she held it up to Jude for inspection.

It was a blue-and-white-striped T-shirt with a round crew neck and rolled sleeves.

“What about this one?”

Jude held up her palms. “Don’t look at me. Your opinion is the only one that matters here.”

Kat stuck her tongue out at Jude. “Okay, fine. This one. It’s tomboyish, but it still has a feminine cut. I could wear it under a black blazer or a bomber jacket or something.”

“Then it’s perfect,” Jude said. “I mean, it’s not nearly ugly enough, but I’ll let that slide. Come on. Let’s look at jackets.”

“Are you going to march me around to every section of this store and make me choose something?” Kat said, slowing as they walked so their fingers brushed together. Jude’s heart leapt inside her chest like it was on a moon bounce.

She opened her mouth to reply, but before she could, a girl came up to Kat’s other side.

“Excuse me?” the girl said. She looked no older than fourteen, with braces on her teeth and a furious blush on her face. “Could I take a photo with you?”

“Um.” Kat’s eyes darted around the store.

“Okay.” She leaned her face next to the girl’s and smiled, her mouth melting into cheerful nonconcern as the girl took her time holding up her phone and snapping selfies.

“Have a great day,” Kat said, her voice straining as she straightened up.

The girl opened her mouth as if to say something else, but Kat took Jude’s elbow and started pulling her toward the checkout counter.

“We need to leave,” she said in an undertone.

“Why?” Jude looked back. The girl was looking through the photos on her phone, not following them or doing anything weird.

“Just trust me,” Kat said.

“Oh my God!” a woman said from a couple feet away, her voice so loud she was practically yelling. “Are you Katrina Kelly ?”

“ Shit, ” Kat whispered. Her grip on Jude’s upper arm tightened suddenly. She dropped the T-shirt on the nearest display and waved at the woman, then started marching Jude over toward the doors.

But it was too late. At the woman’s shout, everyone in the store had looked up. Faster than Jude would have thought possible, people started to gather around them.

The woman who’d shouted ran over, pushing her way to the front.

She grabbed Kat’s free hand. “Katrina!” she said.

“I love you. I’ve seen every one of your movies.

I’ve watched every episode of P.R.O.M. like six times.

” Her voice reached a frantic pitch, like she was on the verge of tears.

“I’ve been having a really hard time lately and I just feel like—I feel like me seeing you is a sign and—”

“Thank you so much for being a fan.” Kat tried to pull her hand away, but the woman was holding on too tightly.

Other people had started to press in close to them, their phones raised to snap photos.

Behind them, Jude could see more people coming over, their necks craning as they tried to figure out what was going on.

There were now at least two dozen people between them and the exit.

“Katrina! Can I have a photo?” someone shouted, but Jude couldn’t tell who. There were too many people holding out their phones.

“Excuse me!” Jude tried to yell. “We need to get through!” But her voice was swallowed up by the noise of the crowd.

“My husband left me,” the woman still holding on to Kat’s hand said. “And I’ve been so depressed, but now—”

“Could you please let go?” Kat said, her voice forceful now. Her smile was fading, her teeth gritting together. She dropped Jude’s hand to try to gently push the woman away.

“Ma’am, please back up.” Jude tried to get between them, but someone in the front of the crowd got shoved by someone in the back and went knocking into Jude, sending her crashing painfully against a table of corduroy pants.

She cursed and rubbed her hip. When she looked up, people had filled the space between her and Kat, pressing in so tight that they could no longer see each other.

She could hear Kat’s voice over the crowd, saying desperately, “I’m afraid I don’t have time to take photos right now, but thank you all so much for being fans. If I could just get through—”

But no one was listening. Jude tried to get back to Kat, but the crowd wouldn’t part.

She shoved at shoulders, but people shoved her back and the motion rippled through the crowd, making people less civilized, more unruly, more willing to push to get toward the front.

Someone knocked over a mannequin in a floral dress and it crashed onto the ground, its head rolling away from its body.

Everyone was reaching out, trying to tap Kat’s shoulder to get her attention, trying to make her hear their request for a selfie, trying to get closer. She would be crushed.

“Kat!” Jude called desperately, cupping her hands over her mouth. She looked around wildly. Was there another way out? “Kat!”

An earsplitting noise filled the air in two sharp blasts.

Jude’s hands jerked to cover her ears as she looked around wildly for the source, finally locating a short, stout woman in an Old Navy polo shirt, holding an air horn over her head.

The crowd fell silent, and the woman pushed her way through.

“This is a store, ” the woman yelled, shaking the air horn. “Please resume your shopping or leave.”

The shocked crowd let her through as she authoritatively shouldered her way through until she reached Kat.

Jude could see several people holding up phones, filming the whole thing.

The woman walked Kat as fast as possible toward the back of the store and a door marked Staff Only.

Jude scrambled to catch up and the woman whirled around, brandishing the air horn at her as if it were pepper spray. Jude hurriedly held up her hands.

“She’s with me!” Kat said.

“Okay. Get in here.” The woman held open the door and ushered them through. Inside, it was blessedly quiet. Jude and Kat both gasped, breathing hard.

“There’s an exit in the back,” the manager said. “Do you have transportation?”

“I’ll call a car.” Kat took out her phone.

Her hands were shaking so badly that it took her three attempts to unlock it.

Jude held out her own hand to check—it was shaking, too.

She could feel painful bursts of adrenaline spiking through her body with every heartbeat.

Her chest felt so tight she could barely breathe.

The woman stood in front of the door as if guarding it while Kat stared at the app, muttering, “Come on, come on” to herself as the car got closer. Finally she looked up and said, “It’s outside.”

“Okay. Quickly.” The woman swept them through a concrete room full of shelved boxes and to the large cargo doors in the back. She typed in a code and pushed them open.

Kat turned to the woman. “Thank you. Really, I don’t know how to thank you enough for—”

“Just go, ” the woman said, and Kat nodded, scurrying down the concrete steps. Jude followed, turning her head to both sides to make sure no one was following them, and then they both collapsed into the waiting car.