“Can you do this for me?” she asked, waving the polish wand at Odilie. “My fingers are too clumsy.” Odilie obediently sat down, swiped the blue polish onto the remaining toes, her hands and fingers working meticulously to stay in the lines. “My nail salon was closed today. Something about a toxic gas leakage. As if all those polishes aren’t toxic enough.” She flexed her toes in Odilie’s face, the ligaments in the high arch of her foot rippling.

She started talking about the appointments she went to, her agent, who told her she needed to quit smoking, that her eyes were going to turn yellow. She admitted, in a moment of fragility, how when she was younger she had wanted to be cast in higher fashion editorial spreads, to walk the runway, be taken more seriously as a model. But her agent hadn’t thought she possessed the right look for it.

“But otherwise, I look great. Perfect. He called me perfect, because I am.” She bent down, carefully, so she wouldn’t smear the polish, cupped Odilie’s face and kissed her nose. “Thank you. Thank you for doing my nails.” Odilie smiled back, stood up and plucked the cigarette out of Peri’s hand and dumped it in a glass of water.

“Agent’s orders,” she said as she dug around for her own pack, lit up.

“You love me, don’t you?” Peri whispered from the floor, studying the shimmering navy blue on her toes. Even her toenails were perfect, little half-moons, not too long, not too short. Not like Odilie’s that never seemed to grow; raggedy bits that took up only half of her chunky toes.

“Of course I do,” Odilie replied. Of course she did. She thought about sharing with Peri her declaration, about how she was going back to the city with her, how she refused to be left behind. But that could wait; that could wait until Odilie had figured out a plan for how to get there. A plan that took gumption, that forced autonomy, that made Peri respect Odilie.

Because that was the reason, right? Odilie didn’t have to dig too deeply; she wanted Peri to shine that smile on her and know that she had launched this person into the stratosphere, had made her brave enough to move from her hometown, to want something in life that had always seemed out of reach. To know that thanks to Peri, she was heading for the city, straight to the erratic, beating heart of it.

Peri leaned over, cupped Odilie’s cheeks, squeezing her lips into a pout. “Do you love me the most of all?” Her eyes narrowed, her clench tightening so much on her flesh that Odilie felt her tongue slipping out from between her lips. She nodded rapidly and Peri’s eyes glistened for the tiniest flicker of a moment with unshed tears, before releasing Odilie’s face.