Not just the story and the illustrations, which were amazing. The idea of it. Andrew and Nick had created something different, something creative and cool. Something brave.
They’d decided to do what they really wanted and said fuck it, let’s try.
And as I stood there, showing off my tits, I couldn’t get that out of my head.
“Perfect! Thirty minute break.”
There was lunch served on a side table, but I wasn’t going to have any. I had to shoot for another hour after this, and I couldn’t have stomach bloat. So I put on a robe and drank a glass of lemon water as I sat in a chair and texted Andrew.
Tessa: What’s happening with the air conditioning guys?
Andrew: They’re done. How is the shoot?
Tessa: It’s fine. I have a question.
Andrew: Why am I not surprised?
Tessa: How did you and Nick start Lightning Man?
Andrew: It was after my accident. Nick spent a lot of time at the hospital with me. We had to do something besides stare at each other and drive each other crazy.
Tessa: So you just started telling stories?
Andrew: Something like that. Why?
Tessa: Weren’t you afraid your stories or your drawings wouldn’t be good enough? That they’d suck?
Andrew: Is this a weird way of telling me you don’t like my comics?
Tessa: No. They’re brilliant. Which your giant ego already knows.
Andrew: My giant ego appreciates the compliment.
Tessa: But you didn’t KNOW it was going to be great at first.
Andrew: No. But it was better than dying. By the way, Nick is back from his honeymoon. He talked to our mother. Now he thinks you’re my girlfriend, and he also doesn’t like you.
Tessa: Oh my God. Wear one FUCK shirt and get a permanent bad reputation.
Andrew: There goes the neighborhood.
Tessa: What can I do to impress him?
Andrew: You don’t need to impress him because you’re not actually my girlfriend.
Tessa: Right. Like Judy Gravity isn’t ACTUALLY Lightning Man’s girlfriend.
Andrew: She isn’t.
Tessa: She so is.
Andrew: No, she isn’t.
Tessa: They’re calling me. Off to show the girls for money, then to Miller’s for my shift. And she is.
Andrew: Damn it, Tessa.
On the same day my air conditioner was fixed, the heat was finally breaking. As I worked my evening shift at Miller’s, the wind kicked up and there was a dark bank of clouds on the far horizon. I watched them as I stood in the back alley on my break, feeling the hot, angry wind throw dirt onto my skin. My bobbed hair flew upward as the air swirled.