An online novel by Gillette Edmunds

Everyone who saw Sonya immediately had an opinion about her. Her beauty, her smile, her clothes were such that women admired or hated her from one glance and men dreamed of making her happy or ran from her, knowing she was out of their league and could only make them miserable.

Though physical beauty is measured by cultural norms - one tribe’s beauty may be another’s ugly - in 1984 there was no 34 year old woman in America more attractive than Sonya Clarke. A life time of extravagant comments on her beauty, as well as vast experience in using that beauty to get what she wanted, left no doubts in Sonya’s mind as to where she stood on the totem pole in American culture. No admirer ever told Sonya that she was “kinda cute” or “decent looking”. Anyone bold enough to speak to her would use a phrase like, you’re the most attractive woman I have ever seen, or, Miss Universe doesn’t look as good as you.

At the end of a bad moment, day, or week, a few seconds in the mirror was sure to restore Sonya’s poise. Her curvy, slender figure looked good in anything, even the gray flannel suits she wore during her two previous divorce proceedings. In the opening chapter in Paris, she particularly enjoyed the fact that her silk dress fit her spectacularly well. Blue string straps gently supported a low cut, knee length dress of thin vertical stripes. The stripes, blue, red, purple and white, curved over her breasts, were held tight to her tiny waist by a blue string belt and fell neatly from her hips. Blue plastic zippers ran down the sides of her hips and legs which suggested the possibility of revealing her thin thighs.

Often times she saw in the mirror the sexiness that she believed men saw in her. Her large, hazel eyes radiated white light. Her fair skin, and petite features begged for kissing. Her full breasts and long legs enticed men’s sense of touch. She was pleased at how charming and sexy she was, delighted even. Women, though, admired her thick auburn hair. Her hair, the color of fallen maple leafs in late autumn, brown tinted with orangey reds, could be arranged in many fashions though on this trip she had let it fall to the sides, simply parting it in the middle and straightening the bangs each morning.