Page 174 of Without Fault

Her eyes cut to the ground, and I know I’m right.

“I knew I had my fitting today, and I was so nervous the outfits wouldn’t fit, so I didn’t eat yesterday and–”

“You didn’t eat all day yesterdayortoday?” I look between her eyes, and she looks beyond torn. Her eyes fall to the ground again, but I tilt her chin so she can see me. “Youcan’tdo that, Sage.”

“Liam–”

“What if you pass out again, Dory?” I shake my head at the thought of how scary it was to find her in the shower like that last time. “No. You can’t do that, let’s go.” I grab her hand, and when she asks where we’re going, I tell her we’re getting food.

She tries to object, but I don’t listen, so she tries stalling by taking her bonnet off at the speed of a sloth before fixing her curls with a pick.

“Your hair looks perfect, Dory.”

She blatantly ignores me, but I let her fix her curls for the next five minutes and nearly nothing looks different and we both know that.

“I can wait all day, by the way.” I tease, but her face falls. I walk over to her and plant a kiss on her lips. “You know I'm not going to force you to eat, let's gotry.”

She nods to herself before I drag her to the restaurant downstairs. She grows quiet as we’re seated in a booth in the far corner. They bring out bread and butter, but she doesn’t touch it, and I don’t push her to.

“How was the rest of your day?”

She only shrugs, and when I see that look in her eyes, I take her hand in mine.

“You’re fine, Sage.”

She shakes her head and tries to pull her hand back, but I don’t let her. When her eyes meet mine, there’s a shine in them, and I wish more than anything that it wasn't from her tears.

“You don’t understand how humiliating that was today.” She shakes her head, and I hate that she’s beating herself up.

“The dress barely made it past my thighs, and aftersqueezinginto it, we couldn’t get the zipper up, and I just looked… horrible.” She looks like she might be sick, and I walk around the table to sit next to her instead, and she immediately melts into me.

“On top of that, I had to walk out of the fitting room, in front of maybetenpeople, and they lookedsojudgemental and–” She covers her face and only shakes her head as if she was reliving that moment all over again.

“Sage, it’snotyour fault the dress didn’t fit you. It’s not like you gained a hundred pounds from the last time they got your measurements. You gainedtwopounds. That doesn’t make a difference in your dress size. They quite literally made the dress too small. How–”

“That’s not thepoint, Liam. I don’t care that the dress didn’t fit. Outfit malfunctions aren't the end of the world. It's the fact that those people looked at how big I was in the dress, and their stares alone told me they thought Vincent was making the worst choice in hiring me. Like I wasn’t worthy enough to be their model. Like I wasn’t pretty enough or skinny enough; like I’m just not enough and–”

“Stop it.” I pull her in closer, and I feel her pull in a deep breath. She shakes her head softly against me, and I kiss the side of her face.

“You’re more than enough, Sage. You’remorethan pretty enough. You’re—you’re fucking ethereal, and it doesn’tmatterif you’re not skinny. That shit doesn’t matter. I’d give anything for you to see that.”

I shake my head as I pull away so she can see me. “I’d gouge my own eyes out and give them to you if it’ll make you see yourself the way I see you.”

She smiles up at me, but it seems forced as if she’s tired.

“Tell me what you need so I can make you feel better, Dory.”

She lets out a defeated sigh before running a hand down her tired face. “I just want everyone to never look at me again.”

I give her a small smile and wish I could make that happen. “I’d do anything, but that’s a bit impossible, baby. I think you’re like one of the top ten most famous people on this planet.”

She lets out a soft laugh, and I kiss her perfect dimple. “Do you not want to model anymore?”

She sinks into her seat before grabbing up a piece of bread and picking it apart. “I want to model. I love modeling… I just don’tlove what it comes with.” She shakes her head at something she just thought. “I wish the world wasn’t so mean.”

“The entire world isn’t mean.” I nudge her arm, and she turns to me. “Sage, you have hundreds ofmillionsof people who love you. If you loved yourself a bit more, the world wouldn’t be able to tear you down.”

“I do love myself.” She sounds certain, and I’m sure that’s partly true. For the most part, Sage is the most confident person I know. Most days, you’d never guess she tears herself apart, especially not when she doesn't hide her body and wears what she wants.

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