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Now he just had to convince her that they could ing by the way she’d greeted hi the sarinned to himself and pressed a kiss to the top of her head

SIXTEEN

Kylie enjoyed a week of perfection in her otherwise shit-sandwich life

The tour ran smoothly--or as smoothly as a tour could run with a manic-depressive junkie at the center of it Still, Daphne went on stage and sang her heart out every night, so heras money was made, all the other complaints just sort of fell by the wayside Which was a little sad, but to be expected

Kylie herself was on cloud nine Were there clouds higher than nine? Maybe she was hanging out on nu hoht up The job was fairly predictable, and predictable was good Cade spirited Kylie aice ht dinners on the town And when they couldn’t be together because his business called hioofy little notes

She was happy More than that, she was in love Even when Daphne was irascible or got cranky when Kylie couldn’t quite cover one of her many bruises and make it look natural, it didn’t faze Kylie This was just a passing thing It’d get better, and the tour would be over in another two months Surely she could hold out for two months

"Not that shade, Fat Marilyn," Daphne said peevishly, knocking a tube of lipstick out of Kylie’s hands before she could add the color to her makeup palette "How many ti stupid?"

Kylie bent over and picked up the tube before it rolled under thenot to lose her te a bad day Even as she sat in Kylie’sto wipe her down to apply s easy She set the tube of tomato red lipstick back into her caddy "Shohich color you want, then," she said, keeping her voice patient It was like dealing with a child some days

Daphne pointed at a terra-cotta shade "Like that, but with more red" She pointed at a purple "Mix it with that"

"That’s not going todo it, all right? Who’s the goddamn star around here?" She picked up Kylie’s sudoku puzzle and began to fan herself with the paper "Christ, it’s broiling in here Soet on it," Snoopy said, juuessed that she’d been waiting for an excuse to escape her irascible boss for a few ritted teeth "Reddish brown andpurple" She picked up the tube and used her tiny makeup spatula to dab small amounts of both horrible colors on her ether The resulting color looked rathertoxic, but hey What Daphne wanted, Daphne got "Part for me?"

Daphne parted her lips and tilted her head back, and Kylie noted with a bit of concern that she was cla down one temple Her lips were dry and cracked, too Worst of all was her breath Daphne’s breath s had died in her mouth, and Kylie had to hold her own breath to lean in close enough to paint her mouth

"There," Kylie said when she was done "What do you think of that color?" She leaned back and let Daphne look in the big, littext, and she peeked at it, unable to resist looking

Cade: Thinking about you, sweetheart I’ve got your panties out and I’ht You gonna surprise , Kylie tossed her phone in her open purse at the far end of the table She’d text hiot out of her chair

Daphne perused her bruised looking onna lie" She snickered "Maybe we should start over with a different color"

"All right," Kylie said, getting cleansing wipes and handing them to Daphne Someone knocked at the door at the far end of the room--the oneover to answer it

"I bet that’s Snoopy," Daphne said, taking a sip of her drink and looking expectantly at Kylie