Chapter 1

Jenna sat bolt upright in the bed of her hotel room, blinking sleepily as she tried to understand what had roused her from sleep. It was a noise, she realized, both loud and insistent, but her brain refused to recognize what it was for several long moments, during which the noise continued.

The door, Jenna thought. Someone’s knocking.

A quick glance at her phone told her it was a little past 6 in the morning. This early, there was only one person who it could be. “What does she want?” Jenna grumbled as she slid out of bed and crossed the room. She reached for the knob, paused for a yawn, then undid the locks and pulled the door open.

“What is it, Mother?”

Jenna’s mother Linda stood on the other side, a disapproving look on her face as she studied her daughter. “I can’t tell if you’re ready, or if you forgot,” she said, not bothering to hide the annoyance in her tone.

“Forgot…what?” Jenna asked, struggling to get the words out past another yawn.

“We were supposed to meet in the hotel gym at 6am!”

Jenna rolled her eyes. “And I told you that wasn’t happening. I’m on vacation!”

“This isn’t a vacation!” Linda snapped. “This is your father’s company retreat, and he graciously allowed you to come with us. The least you could do is look presentable.” Her eyes roved over Jenna once more.

“I am presentable when it counts!” Jenna countered. “It’s not like anyone else is going to show up in my room.”

“Do you really not remember the way you comported yourself last night at dinner?”

“What are you even talking about?”

Linda narrowed her eyes. “You ate like a pig, and in front of the entire board. You have no idea what I had to do to smooth that over!”

“Not this again,” Jenna said as she walked towards the bathroom in search of a hairbrush.

“Yes, this again!” Linda said as she followed. “You embarrassed me, and your father, and since you refuse to control yourself, you’re forcing me to step in.”

Closing her eyes, Jenna offered up a little prayer for patience. They’d been having this argument for years, and it was the same tired old thing. These days, however, it was less about what was said and more about what was left unsaid.

Jenna, you’re a disappointment!

Jenna, you’re a disgrace!

Jenna, you’re fat!

She knew that last one bothered her mother the most, and if Jenna were being honest, she would concede that her mother had a point. Not that Jenna was actually fat, not really. She just wasn’t skinny. Which, for her mother, might as well have been the same thing.

Jenna had been skinny once, when she was little. Then puberty hit, and all that had changed. These days, she was definitely curvy. That meant she was a bit soft through the middle and had a noticeable belly, but it was a small price to pay for the full breasts, round hips, and generous booty.

“You know, I don’t have a problem with how I look,” Jenna said as she started running the brush through her sleep-tangled brown hair. “I don’t understand why you do.”

Linda took a step into the bathroom and glared at her daughter through the mirror. As always, Jenna couldn’t help pick out the similarities between them—the same brown eyes, the same nose, the same shape of the lip—but it was the differences that stood out more. Her mother’s angular shape; the pinched look of her face; the strained mask of youth not quite covering her mother’s real age.

“I care about this,” Linda said, “because no one takes a woman seriously when she looks like you!”

The hairbrush froze. “Petty insults?” she asked. “Really?”

“Deflection?” her mother countered. “Really? But, by all means, prove me wrong. How many jobs have you had? Or friends? Or serious relationships?”

Jenna gritted her teeth, then took a deep breath and counted out a dozen more strokes. “I’ve had enough,” she said, putting the brush on the counter.

“You think so? Because all I remember is that freak who—”

“I mean I’ve had enough with this conversation,” Jenna said. “You’re going to stop talking, and I’m going to go get some breakfast.”

“Dressed like that?” Linda shook her head. “The president’s daughter shouldn’t walk around the company retreat wearing tight sweatpants and a tank top that shows off her pooch.”

“You know, I wonder what Dad would say if he knew you were talking to me like this, since I know for a fact he told you to lay off.”

The pair of them, mother and daughter, glared at each other for a moment before Linda finally looked away. “You know what? Fine. If you want to come home from this trip with an extra chin, just don’t come crying to me.”

“Don’t worry, Mother. You’re the last person I’d come to for sympathy.”