The Glow by Jessie Gaynor

Author:Jessie Gaynor [Gaynor, Jessie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2023-06-20T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

There were pockets of tiny grossness all over the house—a nest of hair on the porch, a ghostly print of a bare foot on the wood floor that kept materializing, even after Jane had mopped. Signs of life where they shouldn’t be. Once Jane stayed at a motel where she found a white cotton glove in the shower. It was still the most disgusting image she could conjure, that flat, damp hand draped over the side of the tub.

She explained to Tom that for the clientele they were trying to attract, life could only exist within the immediate aura of an actual living person; nothing sloughed off and left behind.

“We’re calling them clientele?” Tom said.

Jane sighed. “I haven’t decided yet. I have a list somewhere. But I do know that part of what we’re selling is a world without grossness. Not sanitized, obviously. Just someplace where no one is exactly human.”

Tom looked skeptical. “We’re all human, Jane.”

They were sitting at the picnic table together making a to-do list for the day. Jane had convinced Cass to give her a three-month “reboot” period before they opened the rebranded FortPath (they hadn’t settled on a new name yet). She was terrified of fucking it up, though she wasn’t even sure what fucking it up would look like. Her style was usually under-promise and over-deliver, but for once her long-dormant ambition had taken over and now she was on the hook for a Global Wellness Phenomenon.

Success hinged on how moldable Cass was. That Tom and Cass had managed to convince would-be influencers like Farren to come to a dilapidated farmhouse in New Jersey without even the promise of palo-santo-scented gift bags was a testament to them both, but Jane knew that the discerning clientele she planned to court would require a more polished exterior, starting with Cass herself.

Her brainstorming doc included the aforementioned gift bags as well as reality show appearance (something Bravo) and celebrity friend. The last was the most promising, but Jane struggled to think of a famous woman who would want to invite the physical comparison to Cass. Celebrity boyfriend was the obvious solution, but Jane didn’t want to bring it up to Tom. At least not yet.

“You don’t think we could convince Cass to shower more, do you?”

“More than once I’ve seen her step in goose poop with bare feet and just wipe it off on the grass so…sure, give it a try.”

“We need to do something about those geese, too,” Jane said.

Tom had started to drop details about life with Cass into their conversations, which made Jane feel like he was actually starting to trust her. Cass never referred to him as her husband, or referenced their marriage in any way. Neither of them ever wore rings.

“Do you have any pictures from your wedding?” she asked.

“I told you, it was just at city hall. Well, I have one.” He opened his phone and pulled it up so quickly she felt sure he had bookmarked it.

They were standing on the steps of New York’s city hall.

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