“Right,” said Polly commandingly. “We’ve decided on a gradual approach. We’re going to start by keeping your basic shape—pants and tops—rather than putting you in ball gowns right away.” She looked at Nina. “I was ready to go full princess from day one, but I was overruled.”

Nina nodded, ignoring the slight. “We’re going to switch out leggings for vintage jeans. Get some cooler tees. And replace running shoes with boots, at least for when you’re not literally running. Then, when you’re good with that, we can go further.”

“Further, how?”

Nina laughed. “I don’t know, let’s take it one outfit at a time.”

Polly added, “Besides, leggings don’t make the most of your incredibly long legs and ridiculous butt.”

“What’s ridiculous about my butt?” Laura lowered her voice as several people swiveled to see for themselves.

“The angle of elevation,” replied Polly airily. “Go, try these on, you’ll see.”

•   •   •

After they’d finished shopping, Polly disappeared to meet some friends, and Laura and Nina decided to grab a quick dinner on Larchmont. Laura completely understood why she enjoyed spending time with Polly; she was hilarious and adorable and generally a force of nature. But she was surprised by how much she was growing to like Nina, too, despite the fact they seemed to have so little in common. Nina lived in a world filled with fiction and stories and words, while Laura experienced the world by moving through it, usually at speed. It wasn’t that she didn’t like books or movies, it was simply that her happiest times were spent in motion. Nina liked to wear clothes with character. Laura liked to wear clothes with spandex. Yet they found each other delightful.

It didn’t hurt that Nina was still reeling from Laura’s sports trivia prowess, and relived their triumph several times while they waited for their pizza to be ready.

“I’m pretty sure the Caltech folks bribed someone. There’s no way QuizDick could have come up with that exoplanet question himself.” She took a breath and her eyes widened. “By the way, an exoplanet is a planet that orbits a star other than our sun, and the only way to see most of them is by the minuscule disruption of other stars. It’s fascinating. It’s as if you had to find a single fish in the ocean by studying how the other fish were making room for it.” She frowned. “I think. I may not have understood it completely.”

“Huh,” said Laura. “I guess you looked it up.”

Nina nodded and literally hugged herself. “The only thing better than knowing something is NOT knowing something and finding out about it.” She frowned again. “By the way, your ex-boyfriend is an idiot.” Nina never met a subject she couldn’t change in an instant.

Laura went red. “Oh yeah, I’m really sorry about that.”