They sat in the living room - more intimate Lanie said - and it took a little prodding but Andrea managed to start nibbling one slice. It was Lanie's biggest fear for her friend, that she would be so harsh on herself that she would equate all caloric intake with the devil.

They ate in silence, letting Andrea sort through her thoughts,, until she was half-way through her small slice and said, 'I was singled out.'

'What's that, baby girl?'

'I was singled out,' Andrea repeated. 'If it had been criticism like, oh those everyday girls are playing dress up, I would be okay with it, because it's a level playing field. But being singled out, it felt exactly like what Cora and Gerry used to do to me. I've put them so far behind me it was like being plunged back into the nightmare of them all over again.'

'Not to sound condescending,' Lanie said cautiously, 'but were they really that bad?'

'The first time I took Daniel to meet them we went to Cora's for dinner on Christmas Eve. My plate had half a wheat roll, no stuffing, no gravy, about two table spoons of potatoes and about six ounces of turkey. Daniel asked me why I wasn't having more and Gerry jumped in, and I quote, she knows what's an appropriate size serving for a woman her size.'

Lanie's protective streak of Andrea flared once more and she set her jaw. 'How long did Daniel put up with that shit?'

'He didn't. I'd excused myself to the bathroom to make sure I wasn't going to cry in front of them, and when I came back Gerry said to me, sit down and eat your dinner Andrea, this man was just leaving and I left with him.'

'Atta girl.'

'They don't still have that hold on me. It comes and goes like it does for any woman, but it's not as severe and I can usually talk myself back to Earth.' Andrea paused, then without really registering it, she selected two more small stuck together slices - what she would normally eat when having pizza with a girlfriend - then gave a little amused chuckle. 'You know what it really reminds me of?'

'What?' Lanie asked, nudging the ranch dip towards Andrea, smiling herself when her friend dumped a teaspoon of it onto her plate for her pizza.

'It reminds me a bit of what happened to Taylor Swift at the VMAs when Kanye West bombed her first ever moon-man award acceptance.'

Lanie gave a little giggle, took another slice for herself. 'You know what? You're absolutely right. That's exactly what this was like. You got to have this magical moment and then those fuckers tried to ruin it. What?'

'I'm sorry, I'll just never get used to hearing you swear like that. You thirsty?'

'Yeah, I'll take a juice-box.'

Andrea looked over her shoulder at her friend. 'A juice box?'

'Heddie shared her Oasis Deliciously Purple with me last time I visited, and it was tasty.'

'Okay, juice box it is. Can you get that,' she added when the houseline started to ring an arm's length away from Lanie.

'Sure. Hello? Hey! Oh, okay, sure. Will do.'

'Who was that?' Andrea inquried, returning to the couch with juie for Lanie, water for herself.

'Meredeth, she said turn on the TV to Access Hollywood.'

Andrea found the remote and clicked on the television; as luck would have it the set was already tuned to the info-tainment show and Nancy O'Dell was in mid-report

'...controversial comments made in numerous publications regarding one of Machado's models Andrea Brick. Brick, who is one of Machado's original Real Live Women models and will be in the exhibit set to debut in August in New York City, wore a white sarong cocktail dress on the Vanity Fair red carpet with her fellow models. Today she was the target of incredibly vicious attacks from fashion critics calling her amongst other things a whale, a rhino and a snowman, which has lead to severe internet backlash.

'Whoa,' Andrea breathed, but Lanie shushed her sharply.

'I wanna hear it!'

'When asked for a comment,' Nancy continued on screen, 'Machado had the folowing say quote 'It takes a whole new word to describe how f_ing angry I am that one of my models who is also a friend was treated so viciously at her red carpet debut. Not only does it insult and belittle one of the sweetest women I know, it completely undermines the purpose of my art show which is to show the female form is beautiful in all shapes sizes and colours, as well as giving my art show negative attention. Because of this I will only be offering interviews on my art show to those publications which issue apologies to my model and friend Andrea.'

'Holy hell, she is pissed,' Andrea murmured, then let out an 'Ow!' when Lanie slapped her in the arm.

'Fucking duh, she's pissed! They came after our sister, of course we're going to be pissed! The fuck is the matter with you?'

'I...I didn't think you'd make such a big deal about it.'

'Andrea, we know you and we knew the moment you saw how awful they were you'd need us. You always need us, just like we always need you.'

For the first time since telling Daniel at work, Andrea felt her eyes well up and spill over. 'Dammit, you're gonna make my pizza soggy.'

'And we don't want that so chow down and then you and i are taking a walk over to Roscoe's for ice cream and we're gonna try a little experiment.'

So saying, Lanie picked up her phone, dialed in her back-up. 'Honey-Milk, you busy? Good. We're meeting you at Roscoe's for ice cream in thirty, okay? Yep, all three of us and bring the magazine too.'

'What magazine,' Andrea asked warily when Lanie hung up, then shook her head when she produced the previous summer's copy of Vanity Fair with the Real Live Women layout.

'Come on, Andrea, let's go have some fun.'