Page 42 (1/2)

"Or cardigan," she said

"In fact, it was so good, I think we should have a thousand hts like that"

"I’ll be in the harem if you want me"

"Or …"

"Or what?"

"You could be my queen"

Eleanor waited in the hallway outside of Søren’s office He’d told her that if she figured out what happened between Xerxes and Esther on her audition night, she should tell him So she rewrote her story by hand as neatly as she could, put it in a nice new folder and gave it to hiht up until theand shut his office door in her face

Why had she given it to hi like she lived in 1993 instead of in ancient Persia, and she put the king in jeans and al Kings were supposed to be regal And the story … Oh, God, she had a whole sex thing going on in the story with Esther being tied to a bed while the king fked her

And now her priest was reading it

Eleanor went back to the fellowship hall food pantry and sorted through the donations Why did no one ever donate Oreos? All she wanted was to eat an entire bag of Oreos and cry for a few hours while listening to Whitney Houston sing "I Will Always Love You" on repeat Instead she went to the bathroom and discovered she’d started her period That explained the tears and the Oreo obsessing Maybe it even explained her sudden moment of temporary insanity when she decided to let Søren read her stupid Esther story

She grabbed her backpack and sat down on the bench outside Søren’s office If he was in there calling the et her, she wanted to be on standby to knock the phone out of his hand and plead her case