Who knew flattery could be so exhausting? Mandy flopped down on the bed. The streetlights came on outside, streaming white light through the kitchen windows. She hoped he wouldn’t notice the enormous stack of unopened bills beneath the bed.

“Oh my God,” Kramer Lamb exclaimed, snapping away. “Kim Kardashian is so going to want to use you for her new lingerie line. Stop it. Stop it, stop it, stop it.” He took a few steps back and looked around. “I love that you have a bed right here.”

“She has MS.”

Stuart stood in the kitchen doorway with Ted, watching them. He’d been trying to keep Ted entertained in his room, but Ted was hungry.

“We’re almost done here.” Kramer Lamb didn’t appear to have heard what Stuart said, or if he had, he didn’t care.

“So, what happens next?” Stuart demanded.

Kramer Lamb blew Mandy a kiss as if to say, “Your husband might be famous, but he’s a pushy dick.”

“Next, you let me do my job and send these pictures out and I call you with seventeen trillion offers and you buy yourselves a country house with a swimming pool!”

“And a dog,” Ted said.

“Okay.” Mandy wasn’t sure. “Can I see if I like it first? I mean, if someone wants me, then I’ll try it, and if I hate it, can I just stop?”

“Or if her MS gets worse,” Stuart said. He really was being sort of a dick. “Maybe we should check with her doctor first.”

“I already did,” Mandy lied. “He says it’s fine.”

Kramer Lamb held out his fist. Mandy made a fist and bumped it against his.

“No worries. Worry makes wrinkles,” he said. “From now on, I worry for you. Yes, my beautiful one?”

Mandy giggled and hugged her pudgy knees on the bed. “Don’t I need to go on a diet? Or like, do something different to my hair?”

“No! Please. Whatever you’re doing is working for you. Just keep doing it!”

It was Friday. The women who lived across the street always got meals with salmon and potatoes delivered from Grandma’s House on Fridays. Last week it was salmon moussaka—yum. Mandy just had to get Stuart and Ted out of the house so she could steal it.

“Can you go to the store for me, Stu?” She asked sweetly. “Take Teddy too, so he can pick out his snacks.”

Elizabeth’s eyes were closed. “Why are there so many English people in Brooklyn? I hear their voices everywhere. There was a whole pride of them in the liquor store.”