This Tangled Thing Called Love: A Contemporary Romance Novel by Marie Astor Page A

Stephanie flung open the door to her room and headed for the walk in closet. “Let’s see – size six…”
    Claire followed and was struck speechless by what she saw next. Being inside Stephanie’s closet was like walking into Saks or Bergdorf. There were endless rows of garments arranged by style and size, complete with a floor-to-ceiling shoe rack that housed a collection of shoes that could only be rivaled by that of Imelda Marcos.
    “How about this one?” Stephanie held out a pale-green gown by Marchesa . “Size six, and I’ve got the shoes and bag to match. What size shoes do you wear?”
    “I’m an eight.”
    “I wear eight and a half. We’ll just stuff them with paper. Go on, try the dress.”
    Claire noticed that the tag was still attached to the dress.
    “It’s lovely, Stephanie, thank you. But surely I’d be fine in my cocktail dress…”
    “No, you won’t. There’ll be all kinds of big wigs at dinner, and you don’t want to start on the wrong foot. After all, we would not want the dress taste of David’s girlfriend to be the subject of the dinner conversation.”
    Normally, Claire would have been offended by such a remark, but Stephanie’s tone of voice made it clear that she was on her side.
    “Well, go on, try it on! You can close the closet door if you’re shy.”
    Claire followed Stephanie’s suggestion and went inside the closet. It was bigger than most department store dressing rooms.
    With the dress still half-unzipped, Claire opened the closet door, thinking that she must have misheard things.
    “Here, let me zip you up.” Stephanie slid off the bed. “Perfect.”
    Claire glanced at the mirror and was stunned by what she saw. The dress fitted her flawlessly, and the pale green of the fabric offset her eyes.
    “I love it!”
    “And if you ask me, it’s way better than that pink number Mom chose for you. Turns out there’s a silver lining to every cloud. I’ve got gowns in all sizes, courtesy of my little eating problem.”
    Claire must have stared at Stephanie as though she had two heads, because Stephanie held up her hand.
    “Well, don’t look at me like that. Why do you think my closet looks like a department store? It all started when I tried modeling. I used to be thin, you see, and by thin I mean I was one hundred and twenty pounds at five nine, but apparently that was not good enough for the modeling world, so they wanted me to go down to a hundred. I tried dieting, but the weight would not budge, so my friend Jamie sugge sted I try this ADD drug that suppresses appetite as a side effect. All the socialites are on it. I did and it worked, but my mind got all fuzzy, so then I tried good old purging and that worked at first, but then I became obsessed with food. It was like it was never enough. I literally could eat a dozen donuts in one sitting and then some. I mean, I daydreamed about eggs, bacon, cheese, steak, chocolate – you name it, I wanted it. So when I wasn’t working, I’d binge and then try to lose it real fast… I was living in Europe at the time, so that kept the family off my back, but then it all kind of spiraled out of control when I gained thirty pounds in two months and could not drop it for the life of me. The well-wishers at the modeling agency called my loving mother, and she rushed to the rescue. Mind you, she was the one who got me into the modeling business in the first place – it was either that or marrying some balding investment banker. So, upon discovering my ‘breakdown,’ Dad and Mom shipped me off to this weight management clinic upstate. Well, after weeks of oatmeal that was worse than cardboard and boiled chicken breast, the weight finally came off. I’ve been getting some modeling work too – with any luck, I’ll be able to leave this lock-up soon and get my own place in the City. And in the meantime, I keep up the fucked up, cookie girl act to keep any marriage ideas out of my old man’s head.”
    “Wow, Stephanie, I had